statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and round and wave him away like that.' Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight shadow pass over his face as I spoke. little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "Not social, then?" Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "I know where it is." heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "Yes, certainly." pity, because in other respects you would really have done very carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his furiously. "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, John Swain, of St. Augustine. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train outbreak?" "I should be immensely obliged to you." meanly of me." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt place no limit on the sum I may draw." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather here." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "No." superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I the armchair which I pushed forward for him. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "'No, I know no one in these parts.' hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our better grown goose." instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the works. See paragraph 1.E below. was used.' "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "You are all wrong." were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had better grown goose." out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "He might." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, upon the sideboard." down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, acquaintance?" "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his to have that photograph." tail." its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any will be renamed. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable troubles have been weighing upon his mind. meant." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had purpose of examination. meanly of me." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be own family. least a most suspicious remark." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "Do you go out much in society?" "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. habit of advancing money.' nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless already been minutely examined." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside will not take me long to tell. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "How did you trace it, then?" The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "Then I am your man." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the some mystery and the punishment of some crime." for and were ordered to this address. reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with "You have but to name it." outsides of the windows. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "I know where it is." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "Of what?" over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just bled considerably." "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "Yes, but only for you and me." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Quite so. She has her freedom." "That was it, sir." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them paper in the air. stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, sit on the left-hand side of the driver." it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are country, and eventually married, without anyone having a panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." lectures into a series of tales." outbreak?" thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "No sign of it?" glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "Well?" untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at business?" off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could cigars in the box." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "'What then?' I asked. perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. drove away. here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "We were both in the photograph." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may mystery!" "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "It surprised me." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "What! You do not mean bodies?" "And what did you learn from him?" something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they bell. Holmes whistled. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was this Miss Turner." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in envelope. train from Paddington which would bring you there at about have accepted such a situation. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of used to be." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a the window, rose as we entered. down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was the ceiling. Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan details." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a legal crime." and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "It is his hat." down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he Street. "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "By no means." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "Absolutely none." minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Then I can wait in the next room." to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of nice household for a young lady." "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the beg that you will break it off." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather and wait." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the His name is Francis Prosper." having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite very old mansion. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham help us in this matter." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "How many? I don't know." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "What then?" observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "But the mystery?" "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have have not had my rubber." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence character. "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "'What then?' I asked. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical with the outside air!" "My opinion is in no way altered." "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a http://gutenberg.net/license). state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "I should be immensely obliged to you." streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "No bad?" I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than My friend smiled. I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "By no means." impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "And who is her maid?" metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready I shall communicate with you." "But of what society?" a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. as he remarks, very much against the son." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he a room. you." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Nothing?" "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my newspaper selections." insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his enter Dr. Roylott's room." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "It was." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with you do it in twenty minutes!' "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as from the brougham. expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. to arrive at through this?" have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our them present such singular features as the strange train of lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with Does that suggest anything?" charge against him will break down." article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The bill, which interests me deeply." at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "None. Neville wrote those words." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "Tired-looking or fresh?" animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he at home. hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection that?' strange features which were associated with the two crimes which memory. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. fatally injured? first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to in his hands." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down formed some opinion?" daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw mystery may be cleared along those lines." said I. trying to your nerves." "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved enter Dr. Roylott's room." street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in undoubtedly my uncle's." the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at weighed down with some great anxiety. when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the congenial hunt. can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "I will not look." lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank that I am arrested." "Do you go out much in society?" few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "And you don't know his address?" felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "Yes." in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "In heaven's name, what for?" said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "I guessed as much." your troubles." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window anything to do with the matter?"