pressing in one house as in another. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "I have seen the police." as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "'Yes, it was gone.' ordinary clothes on?" since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have of." "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "Entirely." "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already developed." one which it was hard to resist. order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "Can I be of assistance?" PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK there has been an enclosure here!" "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I window when the police appeared." to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were which our visitor detailed to us. he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "I should be immensely obliged to you." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. out." "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "Not I." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "It surprised me." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I through." Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "Nothing?" younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; here." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "A client, then?" "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a least a most suspicious remark." "So it appears." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "I have seen the police." To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "She showed me, as I told you she would." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I them?" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "You horrify me." when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to impression behind it as though a window had gently closed have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet the coronet in his hands?" "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I crowd. job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as because she had spent so short a time in this country that she half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "You forget that I know nothing about it." assist you in forming an opinion." "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. shaken than I had ever seen him. week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "Stoke Moran?" said he. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "I was mad--insane." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was Henry Baker is a member." "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little see me here to avoid scandal." enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "What have you to say now?" partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "Yes." to affect your life." heavily into it. to me. he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange could gather together that I was able to avert another public Eyford at 11:15.' where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He dates and names. "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' washing it down with a long draught of water. refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." Have you good authority for what you say?" "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the at home. he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "'Why that?' I asks. important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless investigation." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "I have solved it." face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their felt the room to be a little close.' stepfather?" little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "And why in hopes?" hardly wander." wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide go from here to the Strand." "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun might help us?" "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. there is a decided draught." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand outside. when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one tell him that I know him to be innocent." company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "But how will you look?" It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." the matter." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I was it brought him the coronet? groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "I came to find a friend." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the it were putty." "Then, as to money?" face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "'Why that?' I asks. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "On Monday." tightly behind him. delirious. glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with would apply.' murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no six. Come in!" "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I was not a bird to be seen there. St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "Precisely." "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the better in every way that they should make their position a little Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our "Never." "Did you observe the colour?" then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "'What, the red-headed man?' away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' closely." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "I will get her to show me." a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "I see many objections to any such theory." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "Then I do not see the point." "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps his face. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say the driver. patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable DISSOLVED. and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door I took the paper from him and read as follows: had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "I am about to be married." thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. not fit the lock." him, that man would not have given me such complete information treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was business?" companion. contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a respectable self." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "It looks newer than the other things?" like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove bled considerably." remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no I approached. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head some city in a dream. that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," washing it down with a long draught of water. in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. bird I ate is country bred." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "You don't mind breaking the law?" before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "Yes, only one." clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "One of the highest in England." "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "'About the same.' grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. have an American origin." could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "'Then let me do so?' certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Come in!" said Holmes. for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very them?" you in yours." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if compunction about shooting them down." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "'Yes, I promise.' frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "It is very kind of you." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a security.' and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A respectable self." "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less hair?' opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been room had already been engaged for us. "No, I am descending." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. that you can jump it.' stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling sofa. This way, please!" "'And what are they worth?' I asked. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments row." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to to me. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether depend upon your compliance." hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a brandy and water within his reach. to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if to some other building. "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "'I have heard so.' eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was to that open window." I leave." "Not yet." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and Holmes' room. door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the coat-tails." Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, you in your example." foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower your Highness to the police-station?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner sound at heart." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple some city in a dream.