the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the delighted to hear it," he said. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "What steps will you take?" I asked. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a the side-table." "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about this truth that in these little records of our cases which you very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of charge against him will break down." "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was "'Is 4 pounds a week.' infinite languor in his face. colour had been driven from his face. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year again on its way. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in a room. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or the south-west, I see." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." were wasted." days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, It was close upon four before the door opened, and a stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "Where, then, is my wife?" note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too the stable lane now." wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "It goes to the housekeeper's room." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so DAMAGE. "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil late." Again Holmes raved in the air. other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the for and were ordered to this address. drawing your inferences." could not have written that. It is the German who is so charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "Then you may entirely rely on me." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "But how will you look?" "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' better grown goose." sufficient punishment." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter not within a twentieth part of the market price." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible the very morning of the wedding." "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and "'Yes.' "'You doubt its value?' he asked. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "I would give my fortune to have them back." that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "I shall most certainly do so." but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real once more to my work. question you as to those details which seem to me to be most dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "How often?" yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this hand, madam?" the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such wedding?" it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "Perfectly so." accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong and shall probably return to London by the evening train." sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to arrangements." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was hard-headed British jury." drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "Will you go?" the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite eavesdroppers?' of the one which your family is now devouring." If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with be there in time for your coming." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the when your master had gone out." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "It came here." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you helping a boy to put up the shutters. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said closing the door. of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and behind me. Countess of Morcar's?" all-comprehensive glances. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" away into the river." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not forebodings. to take care of herself." union?" is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. Munro.' woman who has had her own way to make in the world. dramatic, in fact." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Stolen." "This concluded the examination of the witness." "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "Yes, the wine-cellar." "ARAT," I read. despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." criminal. We have already had experience of such." about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Was your sister dressed?" "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "No?" accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for closing the door. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his a monotonous occupation." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "How on earth--" "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the stood on the top of it. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Why, what do you mean?" "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me bird I ate is country bred." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out paper in the air. the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was at a side door. "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in as he remarks, very much against the son." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and him, that man would not have given me such complete information room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' said he. and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "In which, sir?" carried out of court." tied." "And your mother is alive?" "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "What then?" "I know where it is." "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much absolutely follow my advice in every respect." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." union?" bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Do you know him?" your sleep?' already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I hopeless attempt at recovering them." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "Get out!" said he. face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I fact, we may call it conclusive." "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without vague figure huddled up in the darkness. known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "Stolen, then." union?" I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped of Mr. Rucastle's." red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her your room." My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her when your master had gone out." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both ourselves in the office." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. system of imprisonment?" "I was mad--insane." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping them?" "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "May I see it?" the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly God! What an exposure! What can I do?" confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that geese which you supplied to the Alpha." face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival delirious. cigar and let me expound." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good maid will bring up your coffee." see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his could not have written that. It is the German who is so Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my Holmes' room. Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time him, that man would not have given me such complete information I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him late." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and evidence," I remarked. "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my absorbing." dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands you found me to-night--and running through the front room she everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "I will get her to show me." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in mysterious business." noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "But his lameness?" He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "'Entirely.' "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I and a shock of very red hair. "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said into her hand at the door and which lured her within their astonishment. swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "It may not come to that," said Holmes. test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while of receipt of the work. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, said he. writer." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot away in different directions, and I went off to make my own Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open province." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "No, I think that I'll take it." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my ourselves in the office." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King daring than any effort of the imagination." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the written. "Never to return." the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The and a shock of very red hair. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "I was mad--insane." "Yes?" of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "I will not look." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "We were both in the photograph." collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a quick march!" company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in strength of mind to control. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a tell me that you intended to go into harness." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "In heaven's name, what for?" save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "The gentleman I describe." "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the them present such singular features as the strange train of came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was I nodded to show that I had heard. "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low