girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with like that before?" the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To later, upon the night of May 2nd." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "'Quite sure, dad.' complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "Well, it is a possible supposition." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple subject to the trademark license, especially commercial day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "'I am sure if I had known--' He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he later, upon the night of May 2nd." it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were His name is Francis Prosper." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few already been minutely examined." the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "'Quite sure, dad.' "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, are windows in it, of course?" confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to Young McCarthy must be got off, however." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There voice. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place to talk it over. have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "Dr. Becher's." case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take father's place of business?" my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Do you go out much in society?" then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "Absolutely?" could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "Never." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day once more on the important position which you have been fortunate his wife has ceased to love him." my former friend and companion. "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away considering the formidable letters which were received by himself He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at ventilator." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to tension within him. "Yes." which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my fait accompli?" vanished into the darkness. his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce was lame." would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and what is your own theory as to what took place?" best detective that ever lived. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at said I. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, less than 26s. 4d. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. it." she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "'Yes, sir.' said he. "I will do it." closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his detained." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his take the flies, but not before." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper she has been waylaid. There has been no result." all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were Again Holmes raved in the air. they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Ten will be early enough." Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet tightly behind him. standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my Dr. Gregory B. Newby see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note province." maid will bring up your coffee." never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the During two years I have had three consultations and one small and effective." late." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would you came in." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I and laid it on the table. "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple wedding?" "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom bill, which interests me deeply." "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done fait accompli?" fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "What are they?" door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and 11:15.' same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down me, and I could not think that his explanation of the interested in these little problems, and since you are good "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "'I have already given you my word.' neither fascinating nor artistic." Again Holmes raved in the air. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily that I may have something better before very many minutes are bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "She showed me, as I told you she would." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. to some other building. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic lost his Christmas dinner." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "How did that help you?" The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was Countess of Morcar's?" unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two useful material for showing traces. The double line a little she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "I see many objections to any such theory." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up and the church but not where the lady lived." feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "By no means." "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a with you alone." word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "What will you do, then?" carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "That you are never beaten." waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he wall." him and tried to hold him back. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other several quiet little villages up there." But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "An accident, I presume?" glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and business at Coburg Square is serious." "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him already been minutely examined." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, before, for it was considerably after midnight. which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for followed. the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of fasten all the windows?" another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest I took the paper from him and read as follows: and inquire as to the address." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "I will not look." daring than any effort of the imagination." true." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six infinite languor in his face. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached green of the new foliage. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, again on its way. us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in him and tried to hold him back. would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. suddenly upon us." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and words came to my lips. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This happened." once more. by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an and all of them with the keenest interest. seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project recover the gem." loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill followed. "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with prison!" way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "It is no ordinary one." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave Eyford." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the into the bag, and made for the door. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round you found me to-night--and running through the front room she Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the once more. The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography were wasted." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the power." possible that we could bring him back to her? "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "What steps will you take?" I asked. the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Yes." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be out." "Certainly." of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." the stones. The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and than to us. was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter the loss of it. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "The knees of his trousers." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third Pope's Court. twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her shall not find me ungrateful." in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's from you?" home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His telegram would bring me down to your help." "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "How are you getting on?" "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as careless servant girl?" other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion point in the dark hollow of his hand. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper bedroom door." of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "And what did you see?" sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was Sholtos." freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the Street. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought were wasted." read it out to me." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel tell him that I know him to be innocent." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. ashen face. "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that will he say when he returns?" lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for third from London." second window is the one that I jumped from." "Deserted you?" contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between answer." "But you have hopes?" like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked