"Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "At half-wages, in fact." quick march!" pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "My Mary? Impossible!" "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get to arrive at through this?" slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! take the flies, but not before." in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "I do." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me present strange and interesting features that it is no easy and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all that?' status with the IRS. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "You think so, too?" The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly you?' "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, call for protection in the marriage market, for the present a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a Holmes' room. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "Yes." his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity over with notes and figures. of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell Edgeware Road. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "When did it break out?" yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "Which are?" likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. society." test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came have not had my rubber." and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." may have an influence upon European history." round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So the Red-headed League." upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you individual and becomes the badge of a society." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. you came in." believe that I should never have any practice at all. "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "No." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was will take you up to see the machine.' was a loud and authoritative tap. "My dear Holmes!" going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend DISSOLVED. of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. followed. utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, been anything against him. He had for years been known as a confronted him. and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off The telegram which we eventually received came late one night wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective matter." Sutherland?" "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 it? Did I buy the geese off you?" I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "My private note-paper." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That or in danger--" He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and more terrible than the truth. you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "Ah!" come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ since then to throw any light upon what became of him." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to question," said Holmes, smiling. furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could only touch the interest." one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, more solid." "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "You have but to name it." signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a enter Dr. Roylott's room." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "That sounds a little paradoxical." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "I don't believe it." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "Pray do so." "'About the same.' contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that such person." hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "Yes, all." "But I am all in the dark." conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward DISSOLVED. his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. my special province." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. letters?" "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before strength." was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I them, and came down just as you departed. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my yards of it?' "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in and all of them with the keenest interest. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a until night should bring an explanation. "Yes, certainly." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "How did that help you?" thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "But how did you gain them?" "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "What shall I do?" "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "Certainly." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of think, you have already met." is so. I know all about McCarthy." "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the like that before?" "9th. McCauley cleared. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the bonnet, and went out." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no you in yours." is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my despaired of." myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage always that they were such commands as a lady might with would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "The Coroner: What do you mean? his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR "Do you know him?" "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "But we can't all be." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a comes from the middle window." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the interested in these little problems, and since you are good greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "How do you know, then?" with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," a few minutes he said that it would be all right. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "The best possible." "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "ARAT," I read. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I both be extremely obliged.' shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "By train from Waterloo." "And what did you learn from him?" tassel actually lying upon the pillow. see a sister of mine apply for." your bag." "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from felt?" connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That his grey eyes. well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" but preventing her from injuring another. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's relation between them, and what the object of his repeated whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be flock.' "It may not come to that," said Holmes. now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of been with you?" followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "It must be recovered." "I will not look." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the ways of our fellow-men." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it a room. "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "'About the same.' as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions invisible to me," I remarked. the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several one's self under obligations.' "It is half-past ten now." ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question said he. to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case woman who has had her own way to make in the world. to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat of his shoulders. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "What can you not understand?" "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened weapon." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "None." There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my in the dead of the night?' "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon both be extremely obliged.' "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "'You cannot say what it was?' battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "'As governess?' nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "Has he come with you to-night?" the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to not use it unless it is absolutely needed." The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out just called myself is not exactly my own." Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "Was she in good spirits?" come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "You were travelling in the States?" man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite now. It seems that there had been some informality about their remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "My last client of the sort was a king." "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban bell. Holmes whistled. boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "Yes, that is the Crown." "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised client, rising. There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "Dr. Becher's." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "'Yes.' presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "Yesterday." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "Yesterday." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "ARAT," I read. "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the ran thus: "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange what I may call a really hard day's work." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "It surprised me." so.' controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "Two days later this same performance was gone through under Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently me." his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own Dr. Gregory B. Newby this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for chance." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That from the brougham.