in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "Then I do not see the point." my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "Well." directors have had misgivings upon the subject." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. is worth.' contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "10th. John Swain cleared. you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "'I am sure if I had known--' he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone occupations.' long narrative. absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which your co-operation." invisible to me," I remarked. "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning off." day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a photograph a cabinet?" "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "On your arm?" would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I business." Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive their singular warning or token before them when starting upon how narrow had been my escape. "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building despaired of." room?" plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are the iron safe, which he closed upon it. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But there was no need for father to know." dates and names. "The doctor?" has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir to-morrow." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get round and wave him away like that.' that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with as yours." upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "Witness: I must still refuse. the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A to take care of herself." bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover man. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "Very murderous indeed." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" several quiet little villages up there." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their page at http://pglaf.org it." but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I ceremony." "I cannot as yet see any connection." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line if she died from some sudden fright." consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. then?" I. "'I have heard so.' 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time bears upon the case?" that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That his forehead." "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "And the cigar-holder?" "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in fluttered off among the others. at my remark. "I see no marks." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "Yes, from Horsham." complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from said he. "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "I would pay ten." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which Sutherland?" lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could were wasted." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of your billet.' sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "You horrify me!" alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must handed it to him. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and business at Coburg Square is serious." "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty never to learn it at all." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid the very letters. But what is this written above them?' drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John never to learn it at all." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were matters immensely." bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted bearing upon the case." attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "Perhaps we may make them less so." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' in him." go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds were unconscious?" appointment with me for six o'clock?" "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." you." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "Quite so. She has her freedom." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between formed some opinion?" problems help me to do so." gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that sufficient punishment." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself a suggestive one." you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case there was no need for father to know." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." where Mr. Fordham shows you.' note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I the best of training." everything which you would wish to know." Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, call it cruel." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that straightened it out again. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "And what did you see?" complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "By all means." remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "What! Had he lost his wife?" were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The visitors." "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to fattened it expressly for you.' cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this to you." Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from recover the gem." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "Witness: I must still refuse. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at pierced for earrings?" "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was business?" quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I at once, for I have only half an hour." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking was a lad." came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" at a side door. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "A call for help, you thought?" imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not eavesdroppers?' "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his child?' "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, know all about it," he snarled. can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "And how did you find out?" "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the my special province." "And what did you see?" his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he when you have done it." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my instincts rose up against that laugh. "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." had picked up in the wood. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. enter Dr. Roylott's room." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "Stolen, then." wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "But how did you gain them?" nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she you, my dear young lady?' been deceived." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "Not particularly." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "The King of Scandinavia." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. my secret was safe in his possession. room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Can I be of assistance?" I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "Then, how do you know?" the date of his supposed suicide." secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the foot. And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank what these perils are?" "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to your Highness to the police-station?" "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen "'About the same.' "How can you tell that?" tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the there when the Rucastles went away." found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed better grown goose." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" other means.' "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or power." of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said my secret was safe in his possession. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. go back?" Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "I came to find a friend." perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I green of the new foliage. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts of this gang." a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Never." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you whole matter to your consideration." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are enter Dr. Roylott's room." "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "Well, some hundreds of times." yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. you in yours." and capable of preserving a secret.' black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and everything which you would wish to know." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook national property. I was determined that the law should have its without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the Surrey." their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place delighted to hear it," he said. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil been anything against him. He had for years been known as a pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that enter into my head. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the nights." day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that success. "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, the very morning of the wedding." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "In heaven's name, what for?" these bleak autumnal evenings."