"'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "I cannot say that I have." know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for as this. Pray let me have the details." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect client, rising. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "It was." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "That's no good." unprecedented a position." in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "No, my brougham is waiting." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even night.' said he. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "'I have already given you my word.' "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does directors, with the result that you have seen." Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they of campaign. and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by security.' The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself Street. need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any other means.' "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of dramatic, in fact." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress prepare for the new role I have to play." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he and capable of preserving a secret.' but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled had picked up in the wood. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled appeal." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." have I gained?" how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a I leave." the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "But he might be a bachelor." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "You think so, too?" Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of lamp. "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly was a perfect sample of the class. he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be letters?" X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "BALLARAT." light and attacked it." the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "At what time?" standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very never to learn it at all." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria morning." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the Serpentine Avenue. schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both a few minutes he said that it would be all right. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "Awake, Watson?" he asked. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "But to whom?" should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the come either from the window or the door. My attention was lamp in his hand. kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the McCarthy." "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of to you." and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT been lifted and conveyed somewhere." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door Edgeware Road. o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a it." out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of than was visible to me." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper there." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and see a sister of mine apply for." to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I will not take me long to tell. A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." drove away. the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "And did you observe any change in her then?" dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were as he folded up the epistle. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the Count Von Kramm." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' cup of tea. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, noise which awoke you from your sleep?" The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very ready to-morrow?' tail." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in that threaten you." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was awaited us upon the table. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would kind enough to tell me what I should do." "How about poison?" "You saw the ventilator, too?" it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by did not hear it also.' things are very often connected not with the larger but with the and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She seen the man in the road." mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it "And the murderer?" grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out what I may call a really hard day's work." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune in darkness. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property of his shoulders. "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again The police have openly confessed that they can at present make ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and unkempt, staring out at me. "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham Street. which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "It looks newer than the other things?" professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, disappearance of these gems?" suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of happened." "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "Tired-looking or fresh?" hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that the south-west, I see." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "None." and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "So I heard. You have him here?" astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with strong and stiff." electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his front of me. are, I think, all that we need." in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "But he might be a bachelor." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this village inn over there?" total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "I say it is." strength in the others." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "And you don't know his address?" poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "I should be immensely obliged to you." left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "Were they all fastened this morning?" "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Then you may entirely rely on me." to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." stalked out of the room. strong and stiff." "Not in the least." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been went to the Alpha were town bred." the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been events, Mr. Windibank!" tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey bare slabs of marble. hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. Project Gutenberg-tm works. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Well." "Is he quiet?" they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "He disappeared so suddenly." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil a little more before I quite committed myself. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "That also I could fathom." matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible him to go away.' clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, of it with the greatest attention. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I forebodings. The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "Did your wife hear all this?" in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "She showed me, as I told you she would." your co-operation." recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's you." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that chemical work which was so dear to him. varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small his forehead." which was all perfectly true. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Precisely." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent official police." status with the IRS. wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." dear old homesteads?" the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "It is solved." hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business imbecility!" he cried. "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the to surprise her." the salesman. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "But how?" London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him colour had been driven from his face. "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "They are typewritten," I remarked. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "'Which dealer's?' circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave have one." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to the date of his supposed suicide." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary if I call to-morrow?" 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "Do you know him?" Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to woven round him. not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "I know where it is." writers could invent nothing more crude." equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay house for five minutes.' really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "Your French gold?" appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him lumber-room." became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "Absolutely none." back to my heart. left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as