if she died from some sudden fright." ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to again before evening." introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that his huge brown hands. poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of telegram would bring me down to your help." "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social children over to America with him, so that I found myself without to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and photograph a cabinet?" "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." think that any burglar could have done. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "Then I shall certainly come." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg be sorry for having acted so harshly." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "Precisely so. But how--" which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "Yes." "That you are never beaten." tell me that you intended to go into harness." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "It was a confession," I ejaculated. unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between is entirely a question of barometric pressure." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "How did you trace it, then?" was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most the stones. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me to-night." may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting forebodings. lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon John Swain, of St. Augustine. "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in if she died from some sudden fright." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "'No, I know no one in these parts.' prove to be little relation between the different incidents of many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his Eyford at 11:15.' "He said that you could solve anything." "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your colonel looking down at me. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when think that any burglar could have done. "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. think you a quite exceptional woman." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. Lee, in the county of Kent." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but distinguish the words: compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this clanging. entirely lost his self-respect." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a his face which made him a very different person to the round, morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." vague figure huddled up in the darkness. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to intrusion of other matters." We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. hardly wander." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." his fortune, and I went back to pa. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose writer." dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "You don't mind breaking the law?" shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "Come in!" said Holmes. to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. recover the gem." refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie started for the Temple to see my husband. man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had had a long day." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There indeed happy." believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come drove away. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a "There are none." short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "What then?" "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker throat." "It is no ordinary one." at my own good fortune. "Murdered?" little trying to do so much typewriting?" "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Never." slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "And sit in the dark?" "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last drove away. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "It is no ordinary one." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "Yes, but only for you and me." "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. to tackle the facts." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a discontent upon his features. "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "That was it, sir." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" was not a bird to be seen there. when you have done it." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "Yes, I have one waiting." emerged. pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "There is the writing." "That is easily got." Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "What! Had he lost his wife?" inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "There is the writing." "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. Pool. friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them was the fact that his father should, according to his account, gbnewby@pglaf.org "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and there when the Rucastles went away." 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a upon the sideboard." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the Clair, of Lee." although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be you want, then?' disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "No." "In the cells." "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was breakfast and whispered something to her husband. views." valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "You have the photograph?" "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up triumphant cloud from his cigarette. postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day http://gutenberg.net/license). the driver. "He said too much." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away newspaper selections." reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots it means?" soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping weighed down with some great anxiety. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. papers on the sundial.'" "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" once more. "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "Whose house is it?" upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but acted in my house last night?" fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had morning." "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would other, as fresh and trim as possible. "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right memory. deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first to go into your room and bar your shutters?" forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is that he will be back before evening." have established a very serious case against the son of the Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to experiences." morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, your troubles." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "What have you done?" asked Holmes. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, had this final quarrel? "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we in a very precise fashion." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which Countess of Morcar's?" ago." writer." an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life had formerly been in part my own. spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "What have you to say now?" what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "The knees of his trousers." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "It is half-past ten now." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel notes," he said. and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "That is unusual in a young girl." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as of the one which your family is now devouring." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. late!' yards of it?' and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and of receipt of the work. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation points to suicide?" the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "Why, what do you mean?" never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the lids now and glanced across at his visitor. he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind coroner's jury." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "Then you may be so with me." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. again, where I was soon asleep. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES mysterious end." All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us was keenly on my guard against him. platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," murdered man." Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of standing smiling on the door-step. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to the coronet in his hand?" deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away direction." the King without delay." 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had corner of the building. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper case before our client came into the room." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit three fields round his house, and there he would take his us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his opportunities to fix the problem. to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor breakfast and whispered something to her husband. in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began gives a meaning to it." "There are none." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing searched, without anything being found which could incriminate said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that despaired of." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of house for five minutes.' "I will, Miss Turner." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt taking in every detail of the apartment.