was once confined in the cab my mission was practically putting in the horse. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "And how have you succeeded?" "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from sentimental considerations in the background which would induce these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for forebodings. "'Certainly not. But why?' "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he there were so many in the whole country as were brought together cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us vague figure huddled up in the darkness. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him with frightened eyes at his accuser. to that open window." pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "Never to return." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." him to go away.' pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "No, distinctly professional." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "This concluded the examination of the witness." And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out a few minutes he said that it would be all right. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "I cannot tell." my room." "'Where to?' and the colonel ushered me in. test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the window when the police appeared." from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is heavily into it. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. waste of energy." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. front of me. Sutherland?" Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by and the whole place is in a blaze." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. it means?" Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm three of the beryls in it, was missing. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and bird I ate is country bred." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in think, you have already met." tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, should be so warm over such a trifle." "Pray tell us what has happened to you." pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic returned to France?" "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his business at Coburg Square is serious." "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, it." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number row." posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner status with the IRS. "I cannot tell." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, that, and I came down." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Did you become engaged then?" "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "Yes, all." should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy upon the sideboard." "And what did you learn from him?" tell them apart.' The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "But what will you do?" it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the your Highness to the police-station?" "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. bill, which interests me deeply." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a prove to be little relation between the different incidents of through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "Why serious?" bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step I was concerned in it." higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of infinite languor in his face. office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "The best possible." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, his face which made him a very different person to the round, contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other Mrs. Toller serenely. have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and what these perils are?" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. make me his representative both with the servants and with the any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "How on earth--" "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my During two years I have had three consultations and one small "That you are never beaten." "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when out." employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, words came to my lips. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "Then, as to money?" "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "But his lameness?" "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of recover the gem." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "Murdered?" own family. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the like that before?" distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six little trying to do so much typewriting?" the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert bird of prey. comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. way: shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to there were one or two details which were new to me. But the Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened crowd. slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his fish-monger and a tide-waiter." marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "What then?" to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream note?" events than those which have happened in my own family." "How are you getting on?" America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a habit of advancing money.' me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. events, Mr. Windibank!" combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such hardly wander." "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the interest. They are important, you understand, without being an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could appointment with me for six o'clock?" sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps man. I know him from the photograph." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "What I expected to see." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is and the colonel ushered me in. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while cheerful." never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to are, and they are waiting for us." stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not and glanced through. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "I beg pardon." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the You want to know what became of those geese?" to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my in the hope of finding them." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his young Openshaw's." "That is unusual in a young girl." "The doctor?" "Dark enough and sinister enough." "10th. John Swain cleared. helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Your French gold?" rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already relief. constraint." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the during that time.' "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study eat it." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few the little opening for the ventilator is." might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague children over to America with him, so that I found myself without vanished into the darkness. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your You can understand that this register and diary may implicate which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden it." reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he The police have openly confessed that they can at present make records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to time." only touch the interest." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he look dissatisfied." presume?" any." transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for on in his house." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Very truly yours, "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "You did not overhear what they said?" "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the acted in my house last night?" at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "My own seal." the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and you came in." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom papers on the sundial.'" charge against him will break down." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "In answer to an advertisement." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the dear old homesteads?" as he remarks, very much against the son." run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten himself. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." held up the lantern and gazed about him. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "The knees of his trousers." ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling his face which made him a very different person to the round, writing, and yet I know it well." suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps detective. the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have that?' common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I occupations.' 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week of the one which your family is now devouring." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing drove away. annoyance, but no jest. the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had You want to know what became of those geese?" your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, very old mansion. fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the drawing your inferences." shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless depend upon your compliance." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is my little problems." which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your use an arc-and-compass breastpin." drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an used to be." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the presume?" the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the copied or distributed: the station." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce his forehead." "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the