lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with fish-monger and a tide-waiter." this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "Imitated." of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "Yes, from Horsham." and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "I don't believe it." the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one troubles have been weighing upon his mind. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress not personally threatened." "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a tapping his fingers upon the table. "Precisely so. But how--" and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on seven miles from Eyford Station.' name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for second." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon geese which you supplied to the Alpha." look dissatisfied." was shining brightly. stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "'Yes, sir.' "What is it, then--a fire?" can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord "And that is--" "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable she to prove their authenticity?" Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in lost his Christmas dinner." from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "And leave your case unfinished?" consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been mystery." "My Mary? Impossible!" had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a call for it in person on Monday morning.' lamp. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Will you go?" "Stoke Moran?" said he. too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "What! You do not mean bodies?" Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "And what then?" Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "I fear not." useful material for showing traces. The double line a little to affect your life." and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "Yes, it would be as well." so.' "No." a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "To an end?" preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it child?' that he has suffered." Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich enough to aid us in our search." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "We must sit without light. He would see it through the before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. joking. compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, weapon." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden was keenly on my guard against him. over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, relief. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such himself to hunt down. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, interests were the same as his." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the know that the truth is known." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his ago." beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each been." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all woman who has had her own way to make in the world. them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the it." settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, yards of it?' "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. head. So long, then!" "I am following you closely," I answered. to-night's adventure." "Ten will be early enough." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "Game for a morning drive?" face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love least a most suspicious remark." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Yes." as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "That was it, sir." was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "If so, much may have happened between." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon straighten it?" he. you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I the little opening for the ventilator is." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He ventilator." "This photograph!" "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "No more words. Get out!" "But how?" arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat again before evening." gone. uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with o'clock is it?" last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be bird I ate is country bred." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The stalked out of the room. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "He disappeared so suddenly." Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank matters immensely." poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "No, distinctly professional." Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. upon the sideboard." "'I am sure that I do not know.' an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." events, Mr. Windibank!" "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat too. solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had tapping his fingers upon the table. ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "And why?" so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when hurried away. "Never." "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, been shamefully used." Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am voice. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "Absolutely none." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt signal between you and your father? "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "How are you getting on?" read over the extraordinary announcement. handed it to him. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." cheerful." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, of them has the shutters up.' knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "'I am sure if I had known--' "Imitated." were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard Eyford." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the only touch the interest." slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "We have tried and failed." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are invisible to me," I remarked. everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do despair." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The bears upon the case?" astonishment. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out it." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the has little to do with my story." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the directors have had misgivings upon the subject." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked unprecedented a position." Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking present." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have it." flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "Yes, at the mines." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "That is possible." yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "I am to be neutral?" could gather together that I was able to avert another public him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "One of his hands." to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. "Not I." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "How about poison?" name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who over with notes and figures. "But you were on a friendly footing?" "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "Not I." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out mysterious business." Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock go back?" dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "At half-wages, in fact." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "But he might be a bachelor." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. hardly wander." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "'Where to?' four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "My dear Holmes!" one else, I think." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side I nodded to show that I had heard. tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid Eyford at 11:15.' "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even charge against him will break down." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "I see no marks." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I both be extremely obliged.' alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "What?" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took my room." breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be events, Mr. Windibank!" "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so pierced for earrings?" Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "No good news?" over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his directors have had misgivings upon the subject." caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "'What are you doing there?' he asked. been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." upon the white wrist. "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had ourselves in the office." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "What have you to say now?" "In answer to an advertisement." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'"