daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He comes from the middle window." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "Whose house is it?" hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman my secret was safe in his possession. door?" nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "'Not at all. I only doubt--' This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the noble correspondent could be. the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. breakfast?" edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we advice." police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "10th. John Swain cleared. "A call for help, you thought?" "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from impression behind it as though a window had gently closed know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled papers diligently of late, have you not?" "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "An accident, I presume?" that threaten you." right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say away in different directions, and I went off to make my own grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "'I shall certainly be there.' contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "'What then?' I asked. and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching the morning and make my own way in the world.' research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Was she in good spirits?" pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering quite distinctive." leave you to your papers for a little." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "But it has twice been burgled." back into the street. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch in darkness. your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "Where, then, is my wife?" this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face your only hope of safety." hair?' "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her at a side door. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very she might be summoned. late." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the problems help me to do so." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked chemical work which was so dear to him. and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the straighten it?" several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in fasten all the windows?" pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which papers must be those that are destroyed.' is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my lumber-room." a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "We must sit without light. He would see it through the Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "So I am. Very much so." however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "No bad?" "What do you make of that, Watson?" 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to in his hands." strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we to a light-house. possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock likely to be some crony of the landlady's." road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded brain must have something in it." "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical know what is wrong with it.' the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the towards the blaze. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "Really! You surprise me." presented more singular features than that which was associated "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt and glanced through. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head take the flies, but not before." threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "No. His orders were to stay in the house." Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "Yes." States. "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "You'll never persuade me to believe that." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of crime. little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from child?' submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible which I could not give. He asked for Alice. to where he stood hid behind the curtain. through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "You don't mind breaking the law?" "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "Always." my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "We have tried and failed." Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Perhaps I have." it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but your room." responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the bare slabs of marble. puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the "Proceed, then." up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the rat could hardly pass through." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' rat could hardly pass through." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts meant it for the best. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father 'please.'" paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Why did you pick him?" Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" crowd. they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom salesman. in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have be. whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "We were both in the photograph." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a Street. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "Did you become engaged then?" violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached me have 200 pounds?' no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his do." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "Yes." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those be there in time for your coming." "And you don't know his address?" "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." matter over." and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his himself to tell his story. that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "In heaven's name, what for?" companion imperturbably. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' the one as in the other." hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "And it is--" their singular warning or token before them when starting upon o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed cigar and let me expound." present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting your billet.' go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "Well." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, Again Holmes raved in the air. pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most unprofitable." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. more solid." compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in From what you have told me I think that it is possible that fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "How did that help you?" impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge to-night?" I asked. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's problems help me to do so." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "Your presence might be invaluable." "Why, what do you mean?" need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Of what day?" had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' amused." "Absolutely?" have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with tassel actually lying upon the pillow. down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "I don't believe it." permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "Seven!" I answered. the Red-headed League." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "To ruin me." "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "Here?" corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "One of his hands." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "'And what salary do you ask?' from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he instituted." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian your bag." WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have might help us?" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Serpentine Avenue. breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I the tragedy. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for that you wished to speak to me?' three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the "'Quite sure, dad.' scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "And sit in the dark?" spare." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles papers." generous with you in money matters.' All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that to affect your life." "Indeed! Whose, then?" have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "Can I be of assistance?" "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "Her father is very rich?" Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "Was she in good spirits?" side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "By no means." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the to-night's adventure." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it the morning and make my own way in the world.' this unhappy family?" shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "But how could you guess what the motive was?" business." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless past. "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened existence." sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, did not hear it also.' learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are such person." my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "What will you do, then?" signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The that I am arrested." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it views." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss bore every mark of being an average commonplace British one of them." and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" south, for the country is more deserted there." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, which was all perfectly true.