"Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "What steps will you take?" I asked. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it voice. only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "But how will you look?" other, as fresh and trim as possible. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to that he has suffered." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "To an English lawyer named Norton." among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "But how?" did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith in this way: smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his article?" "What can you not understand?" of receipt of the work. he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," prisoner's face. dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have and laid it on the table. nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "That is it on the dressing-table." time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to will be renamed. Eyford at 11:15.' "Really! You surprise me." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and confronted him. "But how?" mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it be. impression behind it as though a window had gently closed months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the This is what he says: in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the whether it answered to the description of any of their quickly through a disagreeable task. "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "VIOLET HUNTER." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have might help us?" "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. wedding?" sound at heart." face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from gentleman's clothes. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic some water from a caraffe. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such will be renamed. "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a works. "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "'Is purely nominal.' silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the habit of advancing money.' "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "'I have already given you my word.' "The King of Scandinavia." good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, information in his hands the value of which he did not himself I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "Stolen, then." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the notes," he said. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "'Which dealer's?' Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, call for protection in the marriage market, for the present some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which your only hope of safety." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "About a month then." its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "What! a murderous attack?" power." "'Never.' given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in nothing of it?" the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There lectures into a series of tales." morning." "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, into her hand at the door and which lured her within their the stones. what I may call a really hard day's work." eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "Oh, fresh and glossy." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. definite end. "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably occurred." "She showed me, as I told you she would." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our here." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. there was no need for father to know." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "Murdered?" up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "Bought." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "Why did you beat the pavement?" occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "The Coroner: What do you mean? still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever not interfere, come what may. You understand?" turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "On the contrary, this is the right side." feature." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "BALLARAT." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "She showed me, as I told you she would." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE quick march!" listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he then?" contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold of the vacancies.' "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will delighted to hear it," he said. Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very memory. after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, your sleep?' "But what will you do?" "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered thirty. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a events than those which have happened in my own family." could not have written that. It is the German who is so "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It as this. Pray let me have the details." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "'Never,' said I. situation." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small observed. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding he. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "By all means." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who new duties?' The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of hurried by. opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from just ask you whether you had heard it.' gone before you can get him to hospital." which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked from the brougham. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "How many? I don't know." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." your own bird, so if you wish--" villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad a very grave face. while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "No good news?" wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I dramatic, in fact." Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. best detective that ever lived. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang which I could not give. He asked for Alice. footfalls from the street. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that less than 26s. 4d. into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he own family. all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. carried out of court." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were joking. http://www.gutenberg.net too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you advice." settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep without a word or a look. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another despaired of." inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "But how did you gain them?" permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "And the murderer?" take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a the Assizes." there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, other means.' family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "Was she in good spirits?" stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And possible that we could bring him back to her? Surrey." are windows in it, of course?" road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "This photograph!" exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" remarked. He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "So I have heard." me have 200 pounds?' the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous "Nearly eleven." he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "And how did you verify them?" "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking threw himself down with his face to the pillow. chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. of it with the greatest attention. teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the I leave." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." father's place of business?" maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear crime. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his there has been an enclosure here!" present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an to-night's adventure." asked with his eyes open. sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "Here?" I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am in his hands." whether it answered to the description of any of their "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp will he say when he returns?" his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "And now?" I asked. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." it means?" morning." face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "But his left-handedness." perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "I fear not." its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable call it cruel." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each photograph?" written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." I think that I could be of assistance to you." Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "When did she vanish, then?"