"Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations wedding?" abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I his wife has ceased to love him." Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in anything to do with the matter?" a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Yes, sir." "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "'Tell me all about it,' said I. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, train.' He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her felt?" neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a this poor creature." of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is Leave Paddington by the 11:15." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded him. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in them?" hurried by. waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, foresight and the moral retrogression?" go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, extraordinary contortions. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Did you become engaged then?" my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we lost his Christmas dinner." shaken than I had ever seen him. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was nonsense.' I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." absorbing." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There of campaign. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." generous with you in money matters.' protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. children over to America with him, so that I found myself without cost them two and thirty pounds." are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project Holmes rather sternly. to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "The doctor?" the stable lane now." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. returned to France?" "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of served to weaken the effect. Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me showing my impatience. stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque we went to search for him, face downward in a little but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I outside. you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily be there in time for your coming." away to you." pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "I say that I have solved it." for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is closing the door. weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "And the murderer?" once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A to a more successful conclusion." the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over Mary, has deserted me." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." you." ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to Stoke Moran." about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise stammered. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "And how did he make his money?" and inquire as to the address." base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "It is to him that this trophy belongs." upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course your billet.' is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "Whose house is it?" window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his the coroner come to?" remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." such attractions and accomplishments?' the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "I assure you that I am in your hands." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the instincts rose up against that laugh. my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than generous with you in money matters.' known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. believe that I should never have any practice at all. Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, closing the door. through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin indiscretion." morning." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not to surprise her." hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a sparkled upon his finger. probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "'I have already given you my word.' to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has next day. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. conduct the inquiry." that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "What do you make of that, Watson?" present strange and interesting features that it is no easy But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my the best of training." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through developed." perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, their singular warning or token before them when starting upon when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while I nodded to show that I had heard. your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "In which, sir?" male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as the coronet in his hand?" you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "And Irene Adler?" ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and question," said Holmes, smiling. some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke miles off. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at noble correspondent could be. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "'What then?' I asked. may have an influence upon European history." round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and derbies." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "I promise," said Holmes. Have you good authority for what you say?" feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "Yes, certainly." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net which was all perfectly true. if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here over here." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress back to my heart. "You think that he is dead?" "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "'Certainly not.' never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "I will, Miss Turner." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "You have but to name it." to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the important." very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. asked. this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "'What would be the hours?' I asked. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and closely." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case go back?" passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "What!" he roared. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Dark enough and sinister enough." "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "No?" "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "How did he come?" a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "Then, as to money?" admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked morning." building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My had a long day." murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance certainly do as you advise." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. people in all walks of life. We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "And when will you call?" "No sign of it?" Stoke Moran." half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had highroad, where all traces were lost. array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there into the room. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your vault. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "The doctor?" which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice there!' your room." "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We father's young wife. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and of the vacancies.' disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred narrative." outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side such person." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the meant it for the best. nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "How can you tell that?" "Yes." delirious. separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, prepare for the new role I have to play." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "Your sister is dead, then?" upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her the best of training." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "But of what society?" which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the there is a decided draught." already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "Where, indeed?" keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "It came here." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must right! Sit down and let us talk it over." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the than to us. diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If golden eyeglasses. vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to