minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "'Which dealer's?' "Which surely he restored to their owner?" the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it your bag." "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not weigh very heavily upon my conscience." careless servant girl?" "I was sure that I might rely on you." unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "That sounds a little paradoxical." "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her for securing the situation." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an purpose equally well?" was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no furiously. perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the some mystery and the punishment of some crime." I think that I could be of assistance to you." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your father's young wife. such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet made his money." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One developed." heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" without a word or a look. In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his Heh?' waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." arrangements." so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "What can you not understand?" could not account in any way for the presence of the missing baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as mysterious end." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to were new raised from a basin. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily believe that I should never have any practice at all. three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is writers could invent nothing more crude." "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" himself to hunt down. One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" happened." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. night.' said he. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "I cannot tell." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Entirely." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. if I call to-morrow?" coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "Your French gold?" one or two very singular points about this room. For example, the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled during that time.' "You think so, too?" Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "'Most admirably.' glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is redistribution. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "'Where to?' which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my impression behind it as though a window had gently closed two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most other means.' observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "Yes, certainly." anything to a woman, for she would have her way." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it the very letters. But what is this written above them?' heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "And why in hopes?" "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is distance from the station, and there we found the young lady her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having remarked. conceal it?" maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "I am about to be married." Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, one of them." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up lamp in his hand. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "And that is--" beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "But how?" enter into my head. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his our word." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Where, indeed?" particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "But what will you do?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from spark where all is dark to me." characteristics, but those are the more obvious." so.' stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "I cannot say that I have." accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "Yes, he did." How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, photograph?" "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "No bad?" those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from read over the extraordinary announcement. the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a experiences." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "You did not overhear what they said?" is now desirous of getting those letters back." "You have a clue?" that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly bill, which interests me deeply." that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the swore that no one else had been in the front room during the object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly seen the man in the road." "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare make me his representative both with the servants and with the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel His name is Francis Prosper." invisible to me," I remarked. "And why in hopes?" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "Yes, that is the Crown." the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "Yes." either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "'There is a drive, then?' real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "And you can do nothing until then?" sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "You have the photograph?" "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must opened the door, and slipped through. "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" business came to an end." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "What will you say?" this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have tightly behind him. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and problems help me to do so." scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, been deceived." "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "I should like to see him very much." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching the morning and make my own way in the world.' "And Miss Sutherland?" "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "Was he the only applicant?" fattened it expressly for you.' ashen face. Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my But Holmes shook his head gravely. careless servant girl?" maiden herself was most instructive." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "Will you go?" and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "I cannot tell." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." 1.F. "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "I am armed." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a heavy and sharp instrument." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who anything to do with the matter?" look dissatisfied." stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be 'please.'" method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My awaited us upon the table. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "I was certainly surprised to find you there." a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." for its centre. he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should seen the man in the road." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "And Miss Sutherland?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily the general public were present, then?" "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was congenial hunt. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but where she found matters as described by the last witness. providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. recover the gem." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, evidence," I remarked. his face which made him a very different person to the round, going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "Pray do so." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a knowledge of the world." for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "You have but to name it." is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little arms and began to sob in a high treble key. a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" happened." "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if to where he stood hid behind the curtain. newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, had formerly been in part my own. "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "What then?" village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." read it out to me." watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "Look there!" said he. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "Frequently." "BALLARAT." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the unclasping of his long thin hands. ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "None." was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Were they all fastened this morning?" "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a side. the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "I will not look." which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you thought that she would have been so carried away." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "Yes, there are nearly always some there." I held the little printed slip to the light. this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." respectable self." smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and Pope's Court. your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by