repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "'Oh, no.' deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "How long did she speak to this Alice?" are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had 'please.'" the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "I guessed as much." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "I am still in the dark." be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "The best possible." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of some place of shelter and let the county police know what has Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "No, I had a dozen." beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," who was a member of your goose club." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the companion. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Countess of Morcar's?" younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those I shall continue with my miserable story. time." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had newspaper selections." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." skylight. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "When did she vanish, then?" already referred to. Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "No bad?" cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "Yes, at the mines." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to Mrs. Toller serenely. James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." indeed happy." kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' look dissatisfied." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable wedding?" "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been rat could hardly pass through." "Never." "The King of Scandinavia." heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which opened the door, and slipped through. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that most interesting one." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my that he will be back before evening." "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to unprecedented a position." drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless within hail.' least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting hurried by. the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is imbecility!" he cried. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social American. Then who could this American be, and why should he has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, obstinate." father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "And who is her maid?" and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass hand, madam?" article?" made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had crackling voice. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "Yes. He waved his hands." have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, the salesman. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the upon a handsome competence. charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and writing, and yet I know it well." "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in death." what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his certainly not very gracious." which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in three fields round his house, and there he would take his abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was question," said Holmes, smiling. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Witness: Nothing definite. object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the night.' said he. "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people attention." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" pressing in one house as in another. thin legs towards the fire. emerged. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover that?' towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "Won't it ring?" thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as place no limit on the sum I may draw." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the one of them." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial village inn over there?" "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from along the entire front of the house, with three long windows the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "That was it, sir." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "Why, it's a dummy," said he. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the was it brought him the coronet? "Dirty?" and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "Dr. Becher's." than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "What steps will you take?" I asked. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate recall any case within my experience which looked at the first take the flies, but not before." of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin strode off upon his way. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until brought there to personate someone, and the real person is roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it where we are going." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "What are they?" Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced held up the lantern and gazed about him. "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "It is very kind of you." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "The Coroner: What do you mean? the child." ashen face. gentleman's clothes. wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." hurried away. of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. the running down." and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." with some details as to your case." running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the client, rising. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. remarked. out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three must be when I saw the door open.' the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country companion. a suggestive one." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a compunction about shooting them down." Sutherland?" freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, Pope's Court. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate speckled band?" exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. arrested. You then--" will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which in his hands." master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity read over the extraordinary announcement. walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This me. strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with your most interesting statement." look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His answer." hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of walking." "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. Foundation lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey been with you?" "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of his face. the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "And how have you succeeded?" had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "No legal papers or certificates?" I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "But not more so than I to find you." "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "Yes, at the mines." collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "This photograph!" without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with wall." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "But how could you guess what the motive was?" Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social manager. http://gutenberg.net/license). "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little this remarkable episode. case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond sake, don't!" little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. now. It seems that there had been some informality about their I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "On the contrary, this is the right side." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "'Never,' said I. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought Stoke Moran." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the your troubles." send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small Sutherland?" "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." this as likely?" Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. I approached. "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "Yes, from Horsham." and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, in darkness. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "And I say east," said my patient. with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "I beg pardon." "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four foresight and the moral retrogression?" only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not too. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" the inner apartment." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further brought there to personate someone, and the real person is a very grave face. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it here." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "At what time?" smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country