would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. three of the beryls in it, was missing. comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "Breckinridge is his name." silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch me what he had done with the three missing stones. sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "My stepfather's business papers." just ask you whether you had heard it.' article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the always that they were such commands as a lady might with "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came foot. children over to America with him, so that I found myself without I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, Literary Archive Foundation said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, Eyford." again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "I don't say that. Perhaps." "Who by?" flock.' Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "Which are?" "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was was used.' be best to do. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to the bottom.' "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; him. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I upon the sideboard." "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "At half-wages, in fact." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." Does that suggest anything?" and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "Did he not advertise?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else there when the Rucastles went away." slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any prove to be little relation between the different incidents of reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "I cannot tell." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. electronic works with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking father's young wife. and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." not personally threatened." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "Proceed, then." his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "I warn you that they are very incomplete." nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a coat-tails." flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of this unhappy family?" he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "Game for a morning drive?" to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to politicians who had been sent down from the North. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "And I." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "Perfectly so." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the throat." and wait." unkempt, staring out at me. "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was note?" just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may invisible to me," I remarked. read over the extraordinary announcement. he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would the tragedy. "Well." "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their disappearance of these gems?" and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City enough to aid us in our search." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to room had already been engaged for us. face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "'What would be the hours?' I asked. out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three thin legs towards the fire. latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, presented which may be striking and bizarre without being shaken than I had ever seen him. coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "My photograph." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism system of imprisonment?" himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, Holmes' thin, eager face. "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; of the efforts of the United States government and of the better and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "What office?" zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that be best to do. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step other, as fresh and trim as possible. said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had as the one I chose?' little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the frequently gained my first real insight into the character of I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at http://www.gutenberg.net had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he my former friend and companion. "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. derbies." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "Then I can wait in the next room." even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name persecution?" delirious. ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "Tired-looking or fresh?" wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, not interfere, come what may. You understand?" with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat society." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the sooner or later she must fall a victim. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was examination of the premises, but without finding anything which be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." possible that we could bring him back to her? "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. main points of my analysis." other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" friend's singular character. Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of exactly what you advise." withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon highly," said Holmes. "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their to a more successful conclusion." foresight and the moral retrogression?" "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your of a light. purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. God! What an exposure! What can I do?" The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "Certainly." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Tired-looking or fresh?" ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "Bought." contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I sparkled upon his finger. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "Yesterday." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon public press." "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or for its centre. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. highly," said Holmes. Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" experiences." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and over his head with a sweet womanly caress. of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us whatever might befall. ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "No. His orders were to stay in the house." which should have the effect of calling the attention of the metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "That is also quite modern," said the lady. was a loud and authoritative tap. must be when I saw the door open.' We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "One of his hands." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door think, you have already met." "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Never." "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey with the outside air!" from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up right! Sit down and let us talk it over." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, formed some opinion?" happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington as he folded up the epistle. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "Breckinridge is his name." the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "And now?" He raised his hand. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "How long did she speak to this Alice?" would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and own family. agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally frequently gained my first real insight into the character of so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. more terrible than the truth. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "Not yet." "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "'You cannot say what it was?' "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility have had none more fantastic than this." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "My private note-paper." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and future lives." money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in wanted for ourselves." a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had round with crates and massive boxes. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very unprecedented a position." nothing of it?" away to you." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the in my life." back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, arrangements." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "Breckinridge is his name." "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, anything to a woman, for she would have her way." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of in a very precise fashion." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "Then you may be so with me." money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and asked. of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "And why?" familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "And for present expenses?" Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "'I am sure if I had known--' leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their undoubtedly my uncle's." after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that Edgeware Road. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly thin legs towards the fire. impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Yes, from Horsham." patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left sentimental considerations in the background which would induce which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, Henry Baker is a member." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his skylight. "Where, then?" "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. four million human beings all jostling each other within the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a wanted for ourselves."