"Texas, I think." which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have indeed happy." through." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ whole matter to your consideration." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that fact, we may call it conclusive." with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little swore that no one else had been in the front room during the fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "What!" he roared. "I know where it is." him, that man would not have given me such complete information twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he go back?" in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the telegram would bring me down to your help." "I was afraid that you were engaged." "Proceed, then." written, and locked the door of the office after me. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "What are they?" been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "I have a cab outside." lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Will you go?" that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "It is very clear." "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but persecution?" minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I public press." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "I see many objections to any such theory." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "Yes." very old mansion. with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to himself. defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "Where did you address your letters, then?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "'What then?' I asked. 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to chill to my heart. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his there." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have brain must have something in it." building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some bell. Holmes whistled. hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "And your father? Did you tell him?" and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I kind enough to tell me what I should do." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers least a fellow-countryman. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that straightened it out again. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until train from Paddington which would bring you there at about introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, more solid." many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He thirty. low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the to a light-house. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of me." dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, never came back." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events until night should bring an explanation. "Have you it here?" "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! this man was intellectual?" assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place been deceived." grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another the coroner come to?" his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "None." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "She will not sell." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "Only as much as we can deduce." I leave." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was you in yours." thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "She told me to ask you." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens closely." shoulder; "he's all right." "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee whereabouts. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very this Miss Turner." "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man himself in a perplexing position. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the of it with the greatest attention. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently for securing the situation." isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face asked with his eyes open. floor. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you whatever might befall. "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a man. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. of campaign. nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "Nothing." "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "You saw the ventilator, too?" "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "You think that he is dead?" his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. she slowly sank and died without having recovered her compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any of them has the shutters up.' the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Nothing." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. said he. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery to-night's adventure." opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "But what will you do?" my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our congenial hunt. "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "I will not look." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' you came in." continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in will he say when he returns?" "And I." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding the window, rose as we entered. gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you the nursery. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "'And the work?' The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "But how?" in this note: usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." companion. gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Upon what point?" lips." to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "It is his hat." met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a villagers almost as much as their master. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of My friend smiled. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "Imitated." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "Two days later this same performance was gone through under considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no good-night and bustled off upon her way. He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a here." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now business." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an this Miss Turner." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box there in twenty minutes." hard-headed British jury." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon note?" was shining brightly. family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most had a long day." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "Why serious?" shag which I had seen upon the previous night. sake, don't!" passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the round with crates and massive boxes. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "It certainly sounds feasible." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we photograph?" cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, of your young ladies.' would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up this remarkable episode. last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and unkempt, staring out at me. coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that down. cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so became a certainty. "'It is locked up,' I answered. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs trifles." appeal." "He might." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and morning." our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is money should be paid at once.' beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? "I shall be delighted." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year must be when I saw the door open.' "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in at my own good fortune. recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He bird of prey. to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. wedding?" test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." triumphant cloud from his cigarette. and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried over here." the driver. secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "It is his hat." "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "Was your sister dressed?" characteristics, but those are the more obvious." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, straightened it out again. at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary