upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. second." would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "I cannot tell." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train Pope's Court. to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the Farm upon the left." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "A call for help, you thought?" young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "Yes, the wine-cellar." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we the matter?" metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, test if we have an answer to our advertisement." directors have had misgivings upon the subject." October 9, 1890. hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of His smile broadened. "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open to surprise her." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "Did your wife hear all this?" certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "What?" generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was Clair, of Lee." "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and yards of it?' Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged that he has suffered." "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from later, upon the night of May 2nd." southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear enter Dr. Roylott's room." "What will you do, then?" the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather back into the street. his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "Nothing." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, I nodded to show that I had heard. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared directors, with the result that you have seen." she might be summoned. foresight and the moral retrogression?" sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court is four-and-twenty." beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own the bottom.' colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was kind enough to tell me what I should do." surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg to have been novel and of interest." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and me what he had done with the three missing stones. VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as pierced for earrings?" stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a strength." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I During two years I have had three consultations and one small Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His went to the Alpha were town bred." room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, head. So long, then!" "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' breakfast?" a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured might have a private word with us. see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" the Friday. Was it to be in church?" mysterious business." vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "Nothing." has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "I see many objections to any such theory." man. I know him from the photograph." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable it means?" future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to them?" human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. records." his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "To the police?" instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the retorted upon me, and I on you." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "The knees of his trousers." his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "Was he the only applicant?" "Imitated." jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist vault. you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the lids now and glanced across at his visitor. License. You must require such a user to return or dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' chill to my heart. my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "What can it mean?" I gasped. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in intimate personal affairs in this public manner." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The his wife has ceased to love him." wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the fuss that is made over them." want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "I will try. What is it?" far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "We must sit without light. He would see it through the Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of call for it in person on Monday morning.' details." out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch Chief Executive and Director sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "Absolutely?" family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the looking up at the numbers of the houses." your Highness to the police-station?" to affect your life." and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "Dirty?" an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the compunction about shooting them down." "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and was a lad." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent easy-going way." roused himself from his reverie. without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "It is half-past ten now." propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the not fit the lock." I nodded to show that I had heard. "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "Entirely." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the him. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with know all about it," he snarled. look upon these things in a different way." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the you give your casting vote to?" you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their despaired of." Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "Proceed, then." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and characteristics, but those are the more obvious." Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes conduct the inquiry." forecastle of an emigrant ship. "But not more so than I to find you." see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is persecution?" Stoke Moran." than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the all that?" believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "Yes." "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always fact, we may call it conclusive." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not sooner or later she must fall a victim. my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "The doctor?" best detective that ever lived. it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid Munro.' dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling question you as to those details which seem to me to be most bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "And how did you verify them?" ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that works. See paragraph 1.E below. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "The landlord of the Alpha." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who of Fenchurch Street." national property. I was determined that the law should have its probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the silent! Oh, he will be silent!' we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away felt the room to be a little close.' might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was confronted him. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, the running down." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they Holmes. 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable gigantic client. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "'Is purely nominal.' at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no death." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "I have seen the police." nonsense.' "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon the tragedy. "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, his cane at the bell-pull. works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that roused himself from his reverie. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he had picked up in the wood. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "Nothing?" "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "Precisely." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was pressing in one house as in another. upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive said he, "my real name is James Ryder." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' might help us?" until night should bring an explanation. the so-precious time, but come!' where she found matters as described by the last witness. you." the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "How often?" running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "I will try. What is it?" the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a rat could hardly pass through." "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was your co-operation." base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "Yes, it would be as well." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I point our research must commence, and we will begin it by is entirely a question of barometric pressure." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "A confidential servant?" "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could with you alone." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler families. Now for the facts. brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced eat it." went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should nothing of it?" "No." those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "Yes." blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, do." "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "Yes." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "I will not look." shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through that?' at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "I think that it is very probable." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very colour had been driven from his face. window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake down from London to inquire more deeply into it." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot means taking possession of that which another person has a prior coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses,