manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend the running down." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day trying to your nerves." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "I guessed as much." about. soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "Have you it here?" shall use the carriage to-night." "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "Witness: I must still refuse. down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "'Certainly not. But why?' "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "It is possible." room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** if I call to-morrow?" individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are stalked out of the room. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose carpenter." to affect your life." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the might help us?" "Yes, at the mines." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow sooner or later she must fall a victim. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great it right.' His smile broadened. with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a me upon any point which I do not make clear." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "By no means." deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." the morning and make my own way in the world.' all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On your only hope of safety." too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "I should be immensely obliged to you." "This concluded the examination of the witness." "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their ourselves in the office." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey mystery!" I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic and put his glass in his pocket. him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now figure." "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might dramatic, in fact." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached careless servant girl?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob I was concerned in it." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is like that before?" "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a and your relations to her." upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If that before taking the final step I should like to submit the When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end both be extremely obliged.' Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of 'please.'" to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather "Precisely." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "'In my own bureau.' death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. Munro.' deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me pressing in one house as in another. Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "'What, the red-headed man?' Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of husband's writing, madam." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "'Yes, sir.' "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while and it need not interfere very much with one's other "Then he might have called to you?" which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "Now, then, what's the last entry?" As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "'A dozen yards or so.' suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "What office?" and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you direction." "How are you getting on?" which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "I cannot tell." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "What of the rat, then?" overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a London for the present?" which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything instituted." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "BALLARAT." Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' appointment with me for six o'clock?" "The King of Scandinavia." "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything think that any burglar could have done. air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what children over to America with him, so that I found myself without you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, miles off. "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, too. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Very murderous indeed." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of him and tried to hold him back. upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this o'clock is it?" bed dies. Does not that strike you?" began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. gbnewby@pglaf.org "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. question. his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to some water from a caraffe. XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "I was certainly surprised to find you there." years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "'I shall certainly be there.' deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a secret." rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "Yes." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too points to suicide?" "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable the Assizes." a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "Breckinridge is his name." remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "And sit in the dark?" from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my telegram would bring me down to your help." journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" bachelor.' that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "The vanishing of the lady." was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was weigh very heavily upon my conscience." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you was it brought him the coronet? exactly what you advise." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of in the dead of the night?' with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "Yes." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "And Miss Sutherland?" But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. upon the sideboard." the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth opened the door, and slipped through. tension within him. out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, where she found matters as described by the last witness. had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she the coroner come to?" "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of shag which I had seen upon the previous night. endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" the window, rose as we entered. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "You are hungry," I remarked. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Murdered?" it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such presented which may be striking and bizarre without being advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "Yes." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "ARAT," I read. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief had formerly been in part my own. more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the Again Holmes raved in the air. "I would pay ten." "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with posted to-day." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch will be renamed. the matter?" toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper the night.' crime." elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more impression behind it as though a window had gently closed lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "Won't it ring?" trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, woman who has had her own way to make in the world. pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "What I expected to see." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all returning from some small jollification and was making his way it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for his wife has ceased to love him." "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "'Which dealer's?' is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "But who is he?" the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to the loss of it. absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You way in." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business of it with the greatest attention. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been even so self-evident a thing as that." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may affection." my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house DISSOLVED. Arthur Conan Doyle has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "What do you make of that, Watson?" old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and all?" garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. like that before?" the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "There are none." "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand for the market.'