livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the October 9, 1890. "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging lumber-room." "In the cells." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted that the gas is not laid on in his house?" said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "Witness: It was. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing colour had been driven from his face. disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary records." running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and http://www.gutenberg.net "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "This photograph!" season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "How are you getting on?" several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond to-night's adventure." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then it." was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable felt the room to be a little close.' are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project the dangers which encompass me." within hail.' a very grave face. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and answer." written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an were new raised from a basin. refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "Then the page we have seen--" in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining tightly behind him. already referred to. "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that my special province." the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "Stoke Moran?" said he. "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "'Ample.' happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "How did that help you?" "You don't mind breaking the law?" receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "Your sister is dead, then?" wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "And who is her maid?" "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to late!' call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "I have seen the police." Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "Come in!" said Holmes. years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "Yes, at the mines." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that new acquaintance to Baker Street. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to vault. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "He might." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had Farm upon the left." scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our hard-headed British jury." observed. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What your co-operation." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon should be taken.' row." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important gentleman's clothes. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence fish-monger and a tide-waiter." and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. see me here to avoid scandal." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses were wasted." without success. At last the little money which I had saved began league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through confronted him. vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of is," said he presently: as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. I nodded to show that I had heard. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped point our research must commence, and we will begin it by served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "And how did he make his money?" the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "There are none." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while I nodded again. travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "'Certainly not.' gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious round and wave him away like that.' than was visible to me." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! hurried away. Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. in a very precise fashion." ourselves in the office." young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, http://www.gutenberg.net "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the along the entire front of the house, with three long windows the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "Precisely." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the Count Von Kramm." "'And the work?' 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "Your sister is dead, then?" rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son again on its way. to tell." "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." help us in this matter." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "You have but to name it." "It is solved." Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "Ten will be early enough." you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, waste of energy." them, and came down just as you departed. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Did you become engaged then?" "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "Witness: Nothing definite. in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get 1.F. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how Street. Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "Ha! you find it so?" the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, the very morning of the wedding." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would anything to a woman, for she would have her way." be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, correct than the official force." fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the room. made him keep the appointment." assist you in forming an opinion." his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. appeal." on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "Yes, but only for you and me." "To an end?" distinguish the words: entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "I am sure." other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man careless servant girl?" inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. bill, which interests me deeply." the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "'Entirely.' unprofitable." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "I think it very unlikely." in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. notes," he said. wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you these bleak autumnal evenings." "No, I think that I'll take it." once more on the important position which you have been fortunate rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of a good hundred miles off by now." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "You heard nothing yourself last night?" fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." It may be so in this case, also." The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing the matter." and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "How often?" "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his province." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Do you go out much in society?" be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "That you are never beaten." copied or distributed: This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to may never be exposed to such a temptation." know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "Pray be precise as to details," said he. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the do.' is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall tapping his fingers upon the table. description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." the little opening for the ventilator is." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. will he say when he returns?" the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." so.' so.' digesting their breakfasts at home." Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried think you a quite exceptional woman." Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "No, I had a dozen." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came touch that coronet?' happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." careless servant girl?" occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "What! Had he lost his wife?" You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "I cannot as yet see any connection." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." at once, for I have only half an hour." Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "Ten will be early enough." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call pity, because in other respects you would really have done very when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted here and I will read it to you: ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "'You doubt its value?' he asked. colonel looking down at me. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned or in danger--" overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not just ask you whether you had heard it.' evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was of your young ladies.' all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious certainly not very gracious." vault. the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not me. You must get home instantly and act." heavy and sharp instrument." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "'Where to?' It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up him and tried to hold him back. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Was she in good spirits?" has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "On your arm?" locked." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He for its centre. first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "And the murderer?" see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just chair. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his about. very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham seem to you to be relevant or not." Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions train.' used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must details." "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in