"Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "He is still with you, I presume?" panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." at my own good fortune. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a father's place of business?" looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to is worth.' initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped disturbance in my wife." spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet and the whole place is in a blaze." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by our word." pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be crime. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune that?' go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the could go. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty States. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "And from a noble client?" "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and look dissatisfied." "So it appears." Clair, of Lee." you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how do.' off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This second." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the villagers almost as much as their master. there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "I am following you closely," I answered. jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "How did he come?" perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "What, then, did Peterson do?" dramatic, in fact." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very disappearance of these gems?" "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with more terrible than the truth. in this way: midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. with you alone." You want to know what became of those geese?" stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid morning." "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a behind me. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the presume?" the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had "Frequently." man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, south, for the country is more deserted there." place of silver." sooner or later she must fall a victim. "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it of." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, attention." My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached whether it answered to the description of any of their return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would light and attacked it." prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So "I will get her to show me." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days disturbance in my wife." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "None. Neville wrote those words." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This prove to be little relation between the different incidents of morning." "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. hair?' explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "And when will you call?" at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "Nor running a chance of arrest?" have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I furiously. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so of them has the shutters up.' distance from the station, and there we found the young lady for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "It was an hour's good drive." the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally lost nothing by them." He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story my friend's incisive reasoning. accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she Chief Executive and Director papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy The King stared at him in amazement. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we for its centre. he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the strong and stiff." "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "Whose house is it?" standing smiling on the door-step. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "And from a noble client?" but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, the house with me." paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but was it brought him the coronet? from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My not, dad?" she asked. "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "Then the page we have seen--" Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "You have the photograph?" understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "I cannot imagine." "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the breakfast and whispered something to her husband. the inner apartment." "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more papers must be those that are destroyed.' coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on or in danger--" that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "'Oh, no.' weapon." pressing in one house as in another. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "Breckinridge is his name." that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have Sutherland?" the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Then how many are there?" "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "Nothing." Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called in this note: (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "'What do you call purely nominal?' The telegram which we eventually received came late one night we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about the Red-headed League." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to gone before you can get him to hospital." swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway as this. Pray let me have the details." PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "Pray do so." reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary "Why, it's a dummy," said he. were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a galvanised. "Dirty?" never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we been." the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It simple cases which are so extremely difficult." awaited us upon the table. result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. as he folded up the epistle. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "If so, much may have happened between." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." him nearly every evening." "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. strange features which were associated with the two crimes which misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever fear." later, upon the night of May 2nd." therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of his grey eyes. refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "He might." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads that before taking the final step I should like to submit the interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." developed." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is back to my heart. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, sentimental considerations in the background which would induce with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had the coronet in his hands?" away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "The vanishing of the lady." the coronet at all injured?" hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "The decline of his fortunes, then?" had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "Then you may entirely rely on me." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "Game for a morning drive?" "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "It's nothing of the kind." has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, it with his own hands." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their You can understand that this register and diary may implicate The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Pray do so." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped something of him before." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "You forget that I know nothing about it." "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he said I. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are Holmes." feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and see a sister of mine apply for." young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with have one." This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to Farm upon the left." "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my said I. companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, recover the gem." "Dr. Becher's." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which of them has the shutters up.' I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "Did your wife hear all this?" "Seven!" I answered. "I think that it is very probable." the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm in him." Holmes." "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "Ten will be early enough." "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "Yes, there are nearly always some there." chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, infinite languor in his face. I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "By all means." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the unprofitable." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his the coroner come to?" pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "It looks newer than the other things?" watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call "Two days later this same performance was gone through under sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the becomes even more simple." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as of." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is nights." an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a lamp in his hand. "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" take the flies, but not before." the nursery. there in twenty minutes." bird of prey. "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet and wait." him nearly every evening." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "In which, sir?" and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And,