little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and whatever might befall. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "They are typewritten," I remarked. "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter derbies." closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The had a long day." "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "You are all wrong." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I one of the states of the Union." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' little adventures." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather it means?" my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "You have compromised yourself seriously." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my retorted upon me, and I on you." me have 200 pounds?' the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, hour?' that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue tension within him. which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt other lovers by making love himself." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "You are all wrong." for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the Gutenberg-tm License. man. "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up residence of the great financier. "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "Pray continue your narrative." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of voice. his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes read over the extraordinary announcement. was already answered. "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must sparkled upon his finger. "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "Well." "'Very good.' "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most suspect him." "What, then?" find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "I came to find a friend." opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "We were both in the photograph." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my unprofitable." and glanced through. but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Pray do so." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. the best of training." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, it with his own hands." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the look upon these things in a different way." jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a the south-west, I see." "And what did you see?" and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into been with you?" know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the have had none more fantastic than this." "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "Indeed! Whose, then?" "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled never to learn it at all." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "But how?" "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman golden eyeglasses. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy know all about it," he snarled. pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and assist you in forming an opinion." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited laugh and put his lips to my ear. horse could go." Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "So I am. Very much so." man. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "'What would be the hours?' I asked. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "That is it on the dressing-table." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "Won't it ring?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, his fortune, and I went back to pa. diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his crowd. "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the where Mr. Fordham shows you.' breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "I was sure that I might rely on you." quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads clang of the bell. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "And when will you call?" across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" Doctor, of the paper and the date." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, For additional contact information: from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "It came here." It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was him nearly every evening." Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling himself to tell his story. days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "It is very kind of you." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "And what did you see?" story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "I should wish to." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue Count Von Kramm." "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the cigars in the box." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, was it brought him the coronet? closely." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Where did you address your letters, then?" away in different directions, and I went off to make my own blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "Then I am your man." these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "'Yes, it was gone.' floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "Just look it up, then." garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working acted in my house last night?" upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "You are certainly joking, Holmes." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with "Come in!" said he. give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from test if we have an answer to our advertisement." Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where that I can to serve you." "But you have hopes?" at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the closing the door. following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but side. utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman in him." "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "'Ten to two.' several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On been." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and colonel looking down at me. "Ample." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. nothing of it?" perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. again." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and straighten it?" "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. forehead. permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the he bowed and left the room without another word. may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "And your father? Did you tell him?" exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was taking in every detail of the apartment. matter." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "I promise," said Holmes. compunction about shooting them down." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the asked. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she and have this put in the evening papers." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR "I am about to be married." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I trying to your nerves." photograph?" muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the train.' "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "Never to return." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "'Never.' away to you." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. was once confined in the cab my mission was practically more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, formed some opinion?" of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "In heaven's name, what for?" occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such locked. married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of whether it answered to the description of any of their he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. voice. the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for morning." at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "'What, the red-headed man?' o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "It is possible." police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the stood on the top of it. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there you for a few hours?" McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when The King stared at him in amazement. see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "And how did he make his money?" he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be amused." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO be. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the voice, changing her seat as requested. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "Never." "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a I nodded again. "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "Then you may entirely rely on me." hard-headed British jury." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." his face which made him a very different person to the round, not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." maiden herself was most instructive." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Who by?" "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to the roots. master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "It was an hour's good drive." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my writer." here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from respectable self." "And Miss Sutherland?" servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came