weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Who by?" in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his was a loud and authoritative tap. "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we he. interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social footfalls from the street. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I along the entire front of the house, with three long windows wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the geese which you supplied to the Alpha." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "The vanishing of the lady." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "He is still with you, I presume?" minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their all?" assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, fatally injured? "No, but the enclosure is." such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with morning." "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round or other trace. But how on earth--" woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of yards of it?' and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped to affect your life." up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "Which surely he restored to their owner?" and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "At the wedding breakfast." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "But what is it you wish?" "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle attention." after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will instincts rose up against that laugh. so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said voice. labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham had died away into the silence from which it rose. straighten it?" much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission McCarthy." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he him and tried to hold him back. unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. http://gutenberg.net/license). across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly fluttered off among the others. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to official police." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, article?" telegram would bring me down to your help." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but future lives." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he writing, and yet I know it well." the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not American. Then who could this American be, and why should he in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is fuss that is made over them." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down in my life." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "But how?" lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "None." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "At half-wages, in fact." could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. during that time.' It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in man. "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take if she died from some sudden fright." invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "You don't mind breaking the law?" this truth that in these little records of our cases which you this remarkable episode. "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. and have this put in the evening papers." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, that there was nothing in it, after all." "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "But who is he?" ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "At what time?" "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly weary and pale-looking. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they Pool. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the sufficient punishment." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from are, and they are waiting for us." Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "'I am sure that I do not know.' "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "ARAT," I read. very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "And how did you find out?" it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "Pray do so." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from your bag." used to be." us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "At half-wages, in fact." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "There are none." records." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the Gutenberg-tm License. very peculiar words of the dying woman?" or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall few hundred pounds.' placed his cuttings. chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked in. they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, Again Holmes raved in the air. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "'Certainly not.' 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we gone. "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "Nothing." places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Pray do so." glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the or in danger--" "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, of Fenchurch Street." For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "It is his hat." perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "No good news?" "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post would then never go into court at all." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a jewels which you have stolen?' a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I floor. after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case in the port of London." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "No, my brougham is waiting." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "I was afraid that you were engaged." stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "If I can be of use." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and little trying to do so much typewriting?" "'You cannot say what it was?' very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "What then?" law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was had picked up in the wood. speckled band?" Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. residence of the great financier. XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES out of this horrible affair." decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that of campaign. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this during that time.' fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my this as likely?" am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out crime." reach." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "Ha! you find it so?" at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "My stepfather's business papers." "I will, Miss Turner." took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of business?" homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "But how will you look?" knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney must be when I saw the door open.' "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to could go. "There is the writing." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "But the mystery?" hair?' he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I hour?' "To the police?" and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I discontent upon his features. meant." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon as he folded up the epistle. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he 1.F. be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "It is possible." "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot instincts rose up against that laugh. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "And now?" I asked. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side think that any burglar could have done. We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "That is easily got." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "That was it, sir." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "I see many objections to any such theory." "I should like to see him very much." order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I an introduction to him?" and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "That also I could fathom." highroad, where all traces were lost. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point depend upon my doing so.' repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. despaired of." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. since then to throw any light upon what became of him." third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously of them has the shutters up.' "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "But I have heard all that you have heard." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who question. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already one or two very singular points about this room. For example, instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "Yes." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind everything which you would wish to know." footfalls from the street. Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity vault. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed despaired of." correct than the official force." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "Yes." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his of the vacancies.' infinite languor in his face. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "No, finished." which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in relief. is acting for the best. sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "One horse?" interjected Holmes. absorbing." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very