was already answered. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Ah!" walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "I am in hopes that she does." loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try girl said." Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from you?" call for protection in the marriage market, for the present remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully call for protection in the marriage market, for the present Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Nothing." off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the absolutely follow my advice in every respect." about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven Street. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, cigar and let me expound." me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "The Cedars?" down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or awkward doing business with an alias." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most one of them." ran thus: whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Yes, but only for you and me." the one as in the other." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step characteristics, but those are the more obvious." which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, train from Paddington which would bring you there at about so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "It is very clear." before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a discontent upon his features. and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still whatever might befall. "I think it very unlikely." sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "In which, sir?" which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my giving me time to thank him. present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I away in different directions, and I went off to make my own of his shoulders. thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in back to my heart. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your once more for Briony Lodge. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but you." mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What me. gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "What!" he roared. with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich His name is Francis Prosper." its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every felt the room to be a little close.' treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name arms and began to sob in a high treble key. clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as his face. "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my than was visible to me." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "Oh, the cause is excellent!" I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." from you?" having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace relief. "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of criminal. We have already had experience of such." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the asked. footfalls from the street. kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open make me his representative both with the servants and with the that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble when you have done it." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My purpose of examination. American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This money should be paid at once.' another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "By no means." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "And did you observe any change in her then?" prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all mystery!" "I think it very unlikely." "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "Your French gold?" "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do himself. "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "And for present expenses?" "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "You horrify me!" at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull to tackle the facts." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "I was mad--insane." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "You have compromised yourself seriously." "He is still with you, I presume?" "What then?" there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "It's nothing of the kind." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless ago." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" bore every mark of being an average commonplace British triumphant cloud from his cigarette. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but maid will bring up your coffee." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort of the efforts of the United States government and of the better to have that photograph." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet sound at heart." with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is orange pips. interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I obstinate." quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "Then I shall certainly come." "What then?" 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have Serpentine Avenue. engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "Where is it, then?" "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We the morning and make my own way in the world.' deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "We must sit without light. He would see it through the man. I know him from the photograph." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously congratulate you again." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "So I am. Very much so." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. get her out of the way." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any you." Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "'As governess?' livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' page at http://pglaf.org matter." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "To an end?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to strength of mind to control. the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "Yes, from Horsham." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "'Why that?' I asks. dead, shall be safe with us." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. I held the little printed slip to the light. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "You are certainly joking, Holmes." manager. at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "Dark enough and sinister enough." formed some opinion?" fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then simple cases which are so extremely difficult." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "And how did you find out?" left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "You forget that I know nothing about it." "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "You are hungry," I remarked. could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had most interesting one." without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. round with crates and massive boxes. cigar and let me expound." laugh and put his lips to my ear. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "'I shall certainly be there.' miles off. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the me. Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good closing the door. thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through again, where I was soon asleep. with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution help us in this matter." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the my former friend and companion. over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "You have it, sir, just as it happened." questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion front of me. house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very what is your own theory as to what took place?" the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist meant it for the best. took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your easy-going way." moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at locked." "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further woman." not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant of." "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "That sounds a little paradoxical." deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." you, my dear young lady?' his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted now. It seems that there had been some informality about their given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of crowd. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence it were putty." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical newspaper selections." pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest gigantic client. breakfast and whispered something to her husband. were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." along the entire front of the house, with three long windows and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there is so. I know all about McCarthy." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. "It surprised me." withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want upon the white wrist. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed exactly what you advise." have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "One of the highest in England." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank cigar and let me expound." real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from to a more successful conclusion." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you could not account in any way for the presence of the missing he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "No bad?" "It was a confession," I ejaculated. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. the coronet at all injured?" "Certainly, madam." shaken than I had ever seen him. sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day ordinary clothes on?" lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then License. You must require such a user to return or the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had burst out into a roar of laughter. light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. present." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud to where he stood hid behind the curtain. indiscretion." and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "A client, then?" them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in round with crates and massive boxes. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an has little to do with my story." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." as the one I chose?' "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I is entirely a question of barometric pressure." the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler soul! here is her carriage at the door." "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "Absolutely none." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in