in the hope of finding them." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, was lame." Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time take the flies, but not before." ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "Has he come with you to-night?" muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry her also." upon the shelf for the interim." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "But to whom?" room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to that threaten you." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my the child." "Proceed, then." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely new acquaintance to Baker Street. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "He might." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." of campaign. to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a with you alone." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather you?" then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I sit on the left-hand side of the driver." It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders at my own good fortune. "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before so far?" About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" McCarthy's innocence. repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy what is your own theory as to what took place?" With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons grasp, he hurried from the room. loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips him to be an active member of the medical profession." me. "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is was a loud and authoritative tap. shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some straighten it?" shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "Was your sister dressed?" Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "You did not overhear what they said?" along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "It was." "How on earth--" at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "Will you go?" breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low pity, because in other respects you would really have done very plantation.' hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the spare." delighted to hear it," he said. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "Pray be precise as to details," said he. But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "'Ample.' "So I am. Very much so." "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal 11:15.' This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "Always." interests were the same as his." "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose mystery!" "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than in his power. all?" woman." "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "Witness: I must still refuse. "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he shaken than I had ever seen him. at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of http://gutenberg.net/license). have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" all-comprehensive glances. joking. governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their little trying to do so much typewriting?" will take you up to see the machine.' fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "And Irene Adler?" "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his had formerly been in part my own. charged with?" "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being lamp in his hand. thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses the roots. jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "Pray do so." evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they where Mr. Fordham shows you.' to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal you?" the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to fled together." long narrative. observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "Bought." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "Well, but China?" examine." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared keep the flames under. drove away. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to tail." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it companion. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "I know where it is." "Yes, only one." "Nothing?" instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will when you have done it." of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid individual and becomes the badge of a society." in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "What have you to say now?" "In which, sir?" if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was in your London, you will know that the office of the company is into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the discontent upon his features. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking despaired of." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' nothing of it?" "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "'Certainly not.' "You are all wrong." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it over with notes and figures. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the unkempt, staring out at me. eavesdroppers?' off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "So I have heard." Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "I have solved it." Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying she to prove their authenticity?" Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and a few minutes he said that it would be all right. original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her read over the extraordinary announcement. know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. bed dies. Does not that strike you?" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, examination of the premises, but without finding anything which the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, Dr. Gregory B. Newby "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of most interesting one." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive article?" "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "But how?" humiliation." "But his left-handedness." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "It is to him that this trophy belongs." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from into the room. spare." for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss of fine shops and stately business premises that they really Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a once more for Briony Lodge. abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." think that any burglar could have done. considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "You think so, too?" http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ an introduction to him?" blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. "So it appears." already been minutely examined." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as attention." at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "And I say east," said my patient. reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a It may be so in this case, also." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "And what did you learn from him?" many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen most interesting one." bird of prey. "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "Yes, it was twisted." where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "'About the same.' Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Where to?" comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." I took the paper from him and read as follows: "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with McCarthy's innocence. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in papers." Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "I would give my fortune to have them back." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new second window is the one that I jumped from." "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and back alive. such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "This photograph!" unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour 'I should be able to look after that for you.' in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the behind me. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "But of what society?" And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "Yes, but only for you and me." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had matter." successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than man. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first there!' outbreak?" "The Cedars?" "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No been with you?" directly by questioning you." this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment hour?' dramatic, in fact." face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, of a light. me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "It is very clear." sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the interest. They are important, you understand, without being four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of tension within him. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "Quite so. She has her freedom." which was all perfectly true. time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found tail." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" chamber." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout furiously. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "'Stolen!' he cried. to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, and I shall be with you presently." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the followed. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." distance from the station, and there we found the young lady so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not gbnewby@pglaf.org c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "She will not sell." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could to miss it." settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, seven miles from Eyford Station.' bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated