"You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project power." tapping his fingers upon the table. meant it for the best. "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," be. has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "My photograph." paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was Farm upon the left." as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The south, for the country is more deserted there." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "Here?" "I have hopes." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "It goes to the housekeeper's room." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. over with notes and figures. came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "No sign of it?" was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more this man was intellectual?" "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in hurried by. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "Pray do so." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. undoubtedly my uncle's." make me his representative both with the servants and with the "You did not overhear what they said?" if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, crowd. hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "Perfectly so." the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which said he. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to could go. be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon my little problems." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous Count Von Kramm." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few It was close upon four before the door opened, and a of them has the shutters up.' "Yes." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the here." over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that to-night?" I asked. burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from man. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of lost nothing by them." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle at home. have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "In the cells." American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the nonsense.' during that time.' delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. shall not find me ungrateful." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch all-comprehensive glances. a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll it means?" "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life your Highness to the police-station?" 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' into her hand at the door and which lured her within their until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the were unconscious?" in this way: know all about it," he snarled. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' chance." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage to-night?" I asked. her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed Holmes' thin, eager face. the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally carriage. It was a chestnut." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "Yes." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." someone who had been in Australia." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "What can you not understand?" often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "It looks newer than the other things?" "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "Proceed, then." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather the very letters. But what is this written above them?' his grey eyes. I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing Munro.' that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge exactly what you advise." once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of down from London to inquire more deeply into it." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit Street. the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in are, I think, all that we need." subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "'What do you call purely nominal?' "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch little trying to do so much typewriting?" "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "I assure you that I am in your hands." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "What is it, then--a fire?" - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" murdered man." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias returned to France?" "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "My dear Holmes!" the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "I cannot imagine." twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "What is it, then--a fire?" "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the Foundation ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant this man was intellectual?" him." were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. it." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "How do you know, then?" might have a private word with us. Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Yes, certainly." and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "It was a confession," I ejaculated. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "Stolen, then." walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to written. "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "Yes, he did." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Nothing?" in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "That sounds a little paradoxical." had died away into the silence from which it rose. "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp his fortune, and I went back to pa. learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "Where, then, is my wife?" the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and to me. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too geese which you supplied to the Alpha." Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "Absolutely?" so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "'What are you doing there?' he asked. assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "The best possible." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are trifles." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it mysterious end." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked to affect your life." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a bill, which interests me deeply." inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely true." and the colonel ushered me in. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near you understand?" There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to politicians who had been sent down from the North. London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable point in the dark hollow of his hand. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "To the police?" "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "Was the window open?" it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I said he. joking. "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "At half-wages, in fact." corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a comes from the middle window." purpose equally well?" home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking developed." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main address. lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "From his hat?" "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do His name is Francis Prosper." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called said Mr. Holder. interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle me, and I could not think that his explanation of the upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "Yesterday." the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have helping a boy to put up the shutters. skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "Your French gold?" sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "No. His orders were to stay in the house." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was yards of it?' characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" persecution?" You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "I cannot think." strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "'I have heard so.' that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital asked with his eyes open. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you is entirely a question of barometric pressure." he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "Who by?" "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, at once, for I have only half an hour." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "It came here." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise correct than the official force." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in this note: "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes Stoke Moran." public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining shoulder. wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's occurred." grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned upon the shelf for the interim." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable to have that photograph." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some address. "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier never to learn it at all." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from answered with a sidelong glance. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock more solid." "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, in. "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us pictures, libraries, or plate. peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before