is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "That is possible." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the appeal." never to learn it at all." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang rat could hardly pass through." "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "None." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. generous with you in money matters.' "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I my friend's incisive reasoning. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, because she had spent so short a time in this country that she trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "I shall most certainly do so." "I would pay ten." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding my friend's incisive reasoning. "Did you observe the colour?" colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it to affect your life." waste of energy." heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." said I. friends, not even his own brother. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been Doctor, of the paper and the date." seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by most important business. It is probable that he will be away all what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I in him." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the mystery!" better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would once more for Briony Lodge. beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." http://gutenberg.net/license). case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, have had none more fantastic than this." succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious individual and becomes the badge of a society." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS closely." corner of the building. since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "Your presence might be invaluable." cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "You are hungry," I remarked. "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Oh, yes, easily." "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "Tired-looking or fresh?" suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little subject to the trademark license, especially commercial very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." once more on the important position which you have been fortunate comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him it." He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "But the mystery?" "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know know what is wrong with it.' than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of himself. I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in the south-west, I see." from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a affair. "'Why that?' I asks. "Texas, I think." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "Was your sister dressed?" The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the your sleep?' "It is his hat." with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom me what he had done with the three missing stones. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this very peculiar words of the dying woman?" bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is back into the street. unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of with some details as to your case." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the standing smiling on the door-step. charged with?" no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and forebodings. wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "May I see it?" McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece use an arc-and-compass breastpin." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "Then I am your man." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the said he, "my real name is James Ryder." that there was nothing in it, after all." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy enough to aid us in our search." "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. and the colonel ushered me in. Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "There is the writing." sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Chief Executive and Director "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "But what is it you wish?" simple cases which are so extremely difficult." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at it means?" upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any affair. "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of open." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "Awake, Watson?" he asked. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "VIOLET HUNTER." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "You have compromised yourself seriously." you understand?" my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. present." very peculiar words of the dying woman?" accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable way in." "Then you may be so with me." pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "When did she vanish, then?" indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a spare." corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "And you can do nothing until then?" "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "Where, indeed?" snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal and files of the old papers, following the future career of every the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. pressing in one house as in another. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "Yes, at the mines." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he likely to be some crony of the landlady's." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "I guessed as much." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared the coronet at all injured?" you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "I cannot tell." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "It is very kind of you." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the unprecedented a position." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told Lestrade of Scotland Yard." believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have went to the Alpha were town bred." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "You have a clue?" our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a It may be so in this case, also." had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "No more words. Get out!" suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said looking up at the numbers of the houses." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything present strange and interesting features that it is no easy the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he before, for it was considerably after midnight. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage mysterious business." remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the fat-encircled eyes. "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "How on earth--" Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel together. remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain should be taken.' "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there redistribution. it." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among The telegram which we eventually received came late one night should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried fat-encircled eyes. carpenter." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Yes." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so six. Come in!" returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but indeed happy." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the married her." the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "'I am sure if I had known--' "No legal papers or certificates?" weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My business." "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a such attractions and accomplishments?' but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "No." would then never go into court at all." "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside tightly behind him. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a help us in this matter." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she when your master had gone out." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "My last client of the sort was a king." "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then sentimental considerations in the background which would induce manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the quite distinctive." too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I strength." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "Why did you beat the pavement?" black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and fear." and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never do you make of it all?" "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself in. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if it." "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for fear." with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." the nursery. the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a business came to an end." "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between The police have openly confessed that they can at present make studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. you in yours." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old spare." rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." you?' thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "If I can be of use." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his disturbance in my wife." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "'I shall certainly be there.' do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir,