lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have that before taking the final step I should like to submit the protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "I am sure." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was to some other building. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without to-morrow." enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** power." held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but see me here to avoid scandal." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "You'll never persuade me to believe that." deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if next day. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning lost nothing by them." steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "Come in!" said he. business came to an end." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his province." "I was afraid that you were engaged." "What!" he roared. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. your only hope of safety." whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" confronted him. shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "'Never.' you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the occurred." Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Nothing?" I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. what these perils are?" afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the she slowly sank and died without having recovered her prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "So I have heard." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' with you alone." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "10th. John Swain cleared. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the envelope. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "What then?" these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "I say it is." across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "'I have already given you my word.' "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "Yesterday." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "Which are?" slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main in his power. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a mystery may be cleared along those lines." for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be did not hear it also.' he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to other, as fresh and trim as possible. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "Yes." "'Stolen!' he cried. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, vague figure huddled up in the darkness. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded in his power. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "Yes, it would be as well." them?" cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, better in every way that they should make their position a little from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I bird of prey. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob Sholtos." money should be paid at once.' would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had Serpentine Avenue. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Not him." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his peculiar to him. object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as the side-table." "It is true that I have been generally successful." was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "'Which dealer's?' With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Well, it is a possible supposition." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Is he quiet?" twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, leaning back in his chair. him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "Get out!" said he. "Perhaps I have." the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. leaning back in his chair. "Then he might have called to you?" "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H to take care of herself." going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was gone. unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "My dear Holmes!" of the way of danger. "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to During two years I have had three consultations and one small part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any awkward doing business with an alias." humiliation." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "Won't it ring?" believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and bird I ate is country bred." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. ceremony." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "You have carte blanche." "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been clang of the bell. that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him strong and stiff." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "A greater distance to travel." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from if only as a check to my own memory." the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' was lame." gentleman's clothes. with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can test if we have an answer to our advertisement." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we with her." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his main points of my analysis." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now comes from the middle window." air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "And Miss Sutherland?" "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. chambers. right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one your room." prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I Sutherland. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and cheerful." "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were to miss it." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "What have you to say now?" Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting place no limit on the sum I may draw." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "Very truly yours, main points of my analysis." He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "But how could you guess what the motive was?" "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before dead, shall be safe with us." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "And is that all?" or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "No." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "But you have hopes?" chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing before the coroner and the police-court." he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "'Never,' said I. I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' yards of it?' It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the husband's writing, madam." "In which, sir?" member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well prove to be little relation between the different incidents of cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after situation." "Certainly." acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "Yes." "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. III. to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as reach." at my own good fortune. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "Then I shall certainly come." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the His smile broadened. "'A dozen yards or so.' the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this had picked up in the wood. he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right distinguish the words: "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you hour?' about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "Ha! you find it so?" I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with highly," said Holmes. seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "We have tried and failed." with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "It is half-past ten now." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me acted in my house last night?" waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "It was." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which them, and came down just as you departed. Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew south, for the country is more deserted there." each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "9th. McCauley cleared. dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." all-comprehensive glances. be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers I held the little printed slip to the light. was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your The summons was a brief and urgent one. my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at back to my heart. breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Then the page we have seen--" for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious the very morning of the wedding." in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we look dissatisfied." "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other future lives." foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life ways including including checks, online payments and credit card smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, of your young ladies.' of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the gone. time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his been deceived." enter Dr. Roylott's room." him to go away.' arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round think that any burglar could have done. Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations me, and I could not think that his explanation of the when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "Then what has happened to him?" business matters.' bearing upon the case." "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "10th. John Swain cleared. "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "Of what?" "Was she in good spirits?" but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the sofa. This way, please!" shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "'Certainly,' I answered. And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and existence." appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we very old mansion. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, your equipment. "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "No." from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "He slept on the premises." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "My dear Holmes!" anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "Then what has happened to him?" five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "Pray let us have it, for all that." paper in the air. through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. the station."