many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" situation." the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, be. vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was God! What an exposure! What can I do?" Pope's Court. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he it." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more presented more singular features than that which was associated was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in 'please.'" such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Has he come with you to-night?" three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "Can I be of assistance?" your room." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that "They are typewritten," I remarked. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "I should like to see him very much." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little do.' fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "A call for help, you thought?" "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which recover the gem." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Then how many are there?" the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a the house with me." and a shock of very red hair. us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "What shall I do?" any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." fat-encircled eyes. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never call for it in person on Monday morning.' seen the man in the road." was a perfect sample of the class. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my head. So long, then!" mystery!" "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in other lovers by making love himself." contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "Not yet." Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the official police." let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" touch that coronet?' delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some What do you deduce from it?" "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at what is your own theory as to what took place?" her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "But who is he?" the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I golden eyeglasses. marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you him and tried to hold him back. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, bearing upon the case." "No, but the enclosure is." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "I think that I had better go, Holmes." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a been shamefully used." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at front of the hall door has given its name to the place. it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been approach us with offers to donate. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The young Openshaw's." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "Why did you pick him?" I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was cup of tea. you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "'Where could I find him?' "Not in a good cause." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "So I have heard." for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "And it is--" coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "What office?" refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as I have it here in my museum." departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "When did she vanish, then?" the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "'And the work?' remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. as this. Pray let me have the details." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "Bought." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "Which surely he restored to their owner?" could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, other lovers by making love himself." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." I nodded to show that I had heard. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "What! You do not mean bodies?" with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations business?" elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "Do you know him?" "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he I shall continue with my miserable story. The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet side. "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. were wasted." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." not fit the lock." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "My opinion is in no way altered." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "10th. John Swain cleared. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in nonsense.' sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in http://gutenberg.net/license). of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." tension within him. "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "Not in a good cause." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter himself to hunt down. "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." than was visible to me." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where go--none." had a long day." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "'Yes, it was gone.' imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "None." "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his business at Coburg Square is serious." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "The murder was done with it." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very posted to-day." "'Quite sure, dad.' "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "This photograph!" you do it in twenty minutes!' "Yes." teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that man. ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will characteristics, but those are the more obvious." I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for sofa. This way, please!" that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of families. Now for the facts. was a loud and authoritative tap. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that address. fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could to you." "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. kindly on the shoulder. an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for works. See paragraph 1.E below. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the side. of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes becomes even more simple." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her entirely devoid of interest." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "What, then?" useful material for showing traces. The double line a little compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any was shining brightly. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "Nothing." family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal it." jewels which you have stolen?' was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "How did that help you?" were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, you in yours." "An accident, I presume?" some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds place no limit on the sum I may draw." "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His colonel looking down at me. little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would his grey eyes. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "Pray continue your narrative." without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had the best of training." discontent upon his features. "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "I don't say that. Perhaps." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "What! a murderous attack?" no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "He is still with you, I presume?" property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which her also." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to detained." Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." morning." the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' McCarthy's innocence. hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said washing it down with a long draught of water. could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door both be extremely obliged.' constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached http://gutenberg.net/license). "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of I took the paper from him and read as follows: "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him,