"What is it, then--a fire?" drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your McCarthy's innocence. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, obstinate." matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "And from a noble client?" to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw the south-west, I see." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "What is it, then--a fire?" "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white hardly wander." "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: chair. The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "Yes." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that voice, changing her seat as requested. "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips business at Coburg Square is serious." Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, which it had come upon my father." "'And what salary do you ask?' "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "It certainly sounds feasible." recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "Not yet." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "'And what salary do you ask?' just ask you whether you had heard it.' "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I fashion which was peculiar to him. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "'Entirely.' the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my written. to go into your room and bar your shutters?" suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has God! What an exposure! What can I do?" hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as spark where all is dark to me." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have key of the affair now." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon locked." which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "It is to him that this trophy belongs." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us with some details as to your case." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness upon the shelf for the interim." "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "If I can be of use." like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "When did it break out?" "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the jewels which you have stolen?' "'What then?' I asked. said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever coat-tails." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "By all means." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without disappearance of the bride.'" present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "I have my revolver," said I. looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "At what time?" the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a at my remark. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "And on what day did he meet his death?" "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "Yes." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. Henry Baker is a member." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is annoyance, but no jest. "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is for its centre. place of silver." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "But his left-handedness." silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been strength in the others." may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the heavily into it. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis I nodded to show that I had heard. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "There is the writing." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "The King of Scandinavia." them?" weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was swore that no one else had been in the front room during the commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier nonsense.' some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, I shall continue with my miserable story. take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were me. the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. bill, which interests me deeply." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "No?" room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a closing the door. Countess of Morcar's?" Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party room?" money should be paid at once.' "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your was a lad." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "Really! You surprise me." the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no success. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, made his money." to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the will he say when he returns?" points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "I promise," said Holmes. before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "'And the work?' "It must be recovered." laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight business." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "Ten will be early enough." dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I his huge brown hands. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly fish-monger and a tide-waiter." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning that?' I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "Very truly yours, "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in front of me. Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "'Stolen!' he cried. "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every the bottom.' new acquaintance to Baker Street. was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "What will you say?" What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "And you don't know his address?" should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have the loss of it. "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "What then?" the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "Get out!" said he. "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the of it with the greatest attention. fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "So I have heard." breakfast and whispered something to her husband. observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Upon what point?" error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is clang of the bell. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue present." Project Gutenberg-tm works. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "Then, how do you know?" "'I have already given you my word.' forebodings. rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do cigars in the box." that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Then he might have called to you?" herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "You are all wrong." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project about here speaks of his kindness to him." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my never will be, entirely cleared up. "Perfectly so." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Not social, then?" other, as fresh and trim as possible. property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first pressing in one house as in another. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he you do it in twenty minutes!' "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. and it need not interfere very much with one's other fled together." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand direction." face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses look dissatisfied." "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich to have that photograph." people in all walks of life. step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small Literary Archive Foundation suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really that I can to serve you." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our Farm upon the left." hereditary King of Bohemia." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little way in." said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Very much so." few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which threw himself down with his face to the pillow. hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and take the flies, but not before." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, woven round him. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I are, and they are waiting for us." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, get the tickets." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Nothing?" "No bad?" hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own will not take me long to tell. Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner villagers almost as much as their master. his huge brown hands. suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "What have you to say now?" "ARAT," I read. vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old shall not find me ungrateful." incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "So I am. Very much so." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master breakfast?" "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the I shall continue with my miserable story. building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "In San Francisco, a year ago." you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court experiences." nothing of it?" me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic your only hope of safety." and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the outsides of the windows. exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it likely to be some crony of the landlady's." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a dead, shall be safe with us." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "That you are never beaten." both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of bore every mark of being an average commonplace British about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A mysterious business." and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "It goes to the housekeeper's room." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in which should have the effect of calling the attention of the of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "It is to him that this trophy belongs." should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "Witness: Nothing definite. sofa. This way, please!" my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. of his shoulders. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' sufficient punishment." seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less carpenter." through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant