"Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Never." quick march!" "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "'How far from the body?' transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that in this note: feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we thought that she would have been so carried away." of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional meant it for the best. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up them?" neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "'There is a drive, then?' down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with for securing the situation." repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is crime." unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what must compliment you." "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right ordinary clothes on?" drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Did you become engaged then?" The note was undated, and without either signature or address. ordinary clothes on?" have an American origin." down from London to inquire more deeply into it." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily all-comprehensive glances. pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "And I." the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which it." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "No, thank goodness, she did not." about. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the the roots. Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "ARAT," I read. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness it were putty." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "And when will you call?" a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "Then I shall certainly come." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his hour." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it looking up at the numbers of the houses." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention problems help me to do so." own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the From what you have told me I think that it is possible that some water from a caraffe. noting anything else of interest. waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "You are all wrong." the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Will you bet, then?" answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "Certainly." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "In heaven's name, what for?" was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "I shall most certainly do so." desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. Heh?' McCarthy's innocence. extraordinary contortions. woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "I came to find a friend." "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that investigation." the Assizes." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "And is that all?" figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "You are hungry," I remarked. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." did not hear it also.' "I will try. What is it?" residence of the great financier. stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "Ah!" uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. foot. it." "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "Yes, sir." it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "What?" My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for have established a very serious case against the son of the lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "I will not look." answered with a sidelong glance. directly by questioning you." "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' in my life." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. the Red-headed League." "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "'There is a drive, then?' "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the the coronet at all injured?" "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might followed. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were crowd. question," said Holmes, smiling. "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, here." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." wall." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his the salesman. crowd. making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "What steps will you take?" I asked. and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the really the only notable feature about the thing." girl said." "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Then he might have called to you?" as noiselessly as she had come. strength in the others." "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is during that time.' imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is Pool. The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic crime." "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." furiously. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own with you alone." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he States. been." the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really in darkness. go--none." transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand outbreak?" client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "Never." brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may colonel looking down at me. "Then you may entirely rely on me." manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a Young McCarthy must be got off, however." to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "On your arm?" Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "And I to find an enemy." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are crime. present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of should be so warm over such a trifle." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, bird I ate is country bred." said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he friend's singular character. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the when your master had gone out." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking and the church but not where the lady lived." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully unprecedented a position." would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "Nothing?" not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "Where did you address your letters, then?" arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform everything which you would wish to know." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would voice. "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "At half-wages, in fact." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "It looks newer than the other things?" who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to pound a week." to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to over with notes and figures. hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so good for you to do.' of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he I approached. Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman ready to-morrow?' front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag main points of my analysis." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "No." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an as he remarks, very much against the son." the inquest, and which are worth considering." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "'A dozen yards or so.' was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "'About the same.' drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. relation between them, and what the object of his repeated Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "When did it break out?" It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so meant." case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I letters?" when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the triumphant cloud from his cigarette. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we go back?" bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the him and tried to hold him back. "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "VIOLET HUNTER." "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in had died away into the silence from which it rose. from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and is acting for the best. "You will not go there first?" the so-precious time, but come!' or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "Yes." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone the side-table." "It is possible." too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that what is your own theory as to what took place?" when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want have been better. It is all right." pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up thirty. *** START: FULL LICENSE *** Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "None. Neville wrote those words." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission