Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote respectable self." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, joking. silent! Oh, he will be silent!' low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "Pray do so." and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. "But of what society?" points in connection with it which never have been, and probably I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of said he at last. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he writers could invent nothing more crude." house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." You want to know what became of those geese?" what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "I say that I have solved it." is worth.' "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: "No, thank goodness, she did not." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "Then I shall certainly come." Gutenberg-tm License. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "Now, then, what's the last entry?" humiliation." India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "But his lameness?" speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the tell him that I know him to be innocent." traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She populous neighbourhood." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "We must sit without light. He would see it through the I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a III. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in train.' "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom sneer upon his pale face. the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such said Mr. Holder. "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp electronic works "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in woven round him. "Did you observe the colour?" for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, better grown goose." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "Were they all fastened this morning?" rooms." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this observed. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture sparkled upon his finger. copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. meant it for the best. which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to do.' her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped fishes. reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his said he. behind me. help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a ventilator." difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my never came back." "They are typewritten," I remarked. during which he might have communicated with his friend the had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than Leadenhall Street--and--" you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "Precisely." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to jewels which you have stolen?' only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no that he will be back before evening." "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot electronic works great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "Have you her photograph?" Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "I was certainly surprised to find you there." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said bed dies. Does not that strike you?" your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our mystery." lips." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "To ruin me." "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." and all of them with the keenest interest. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a in him." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "'Where to?' gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "You have carte blanche." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the Lee, in the county of Kent." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of more solid." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "Yes, that is the Crown." to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "The King of Scandinavia." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "Eh? What was that?" agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the and I shall be with you presently." the driver. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far such attractions and accomplishments?' a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you daring than any effort of the imagination." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she matters immensely." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense during that time.' was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and goes." commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a was it brought him the coronet? hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the would then never go into court at all." I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "'Never.' "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and question. to his chemical studies. ceremony." fled together." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. the ceiling. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' of fine shops and stately business premises that they really "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. straighten it?" doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police suggested at once that there must be a communication between the beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client we went to search for him, face downward in a little pictures, libraries, or plate. including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "What of the rat, then?" the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "Yes, but only for you and me." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "Very murderous indeed." the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See flock.' "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from definite end. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was Count Von Kramm." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would remarked. "Yes, sir." waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "Nothing." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every individual and becomes the badge of a society." journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my was lame." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "What can you not understand?" call you and give you the chance." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United eavesdroppers?' (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "Yes?" There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret me what he had done with the three missing stones. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "And I." slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly to that open window." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for down in his armchair and closing his eyes. thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "Certainly." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar had no one to advise her at such a crisis." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "What?" his cane at the bell-pull. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming morning." hopeless attempt at recovering them." before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "She walked into the breakfast-room." hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then away to you." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, the general public were present, then?" had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "You forget that I know nothing about it." was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "'Very good.' "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Stolen." have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Certainly." in this note: examine." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. Count Von Kramm." together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must dates and names. I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" bachelor.' did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" kindly on the shoulder. "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "So I have heard." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled Farm upon the left." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "And it is--" of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a to arrive at through this?" much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for your equipment. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and that he has suffered." never came back." object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment clanging. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to may have an influence upon European history." "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the it." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" roused himself from his reverie. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy to affect your life." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I in darkness. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." feature." the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his system of imprisonment?" high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are just called myself is not exactly my own." murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "Now, then, what's the last entry?" from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had away in different directions, and I went off to make my own speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "Ample." little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, relation between them, and what the object of his repeated play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two