destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her at home. the window, rose as we entered. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "Where, then?" I nodded again. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "Very well, sir. And this stone?" not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of there." companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out feature." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared seen the man in the road." work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and is four-and-twenty." Countess of Morcar's?" husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns I took the paper from him and read as follows: maiden herself was most instructive." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the became a certainty. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "And did you observe any change in her then?" dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked me." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the whatever might befall. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and second." traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to someone who had been in Australia." nonsense.' "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "'And the work?' her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so his huge brown hands. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the bachelor.' observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "She told me to ask you." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "Her father is very rich?" half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in his grey eyes. "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in tell him that I know him to be innocent." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "Yes. He waved his hands." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian I shall communicate with you." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to wife's character?" George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "To ruin me." I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and once more for Briony Lodge. consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "It goes to the housekeeper's room." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an which are rolled in Rotterdam." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "Stolen." to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the for the market.' whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" sneer upon his pale face. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "There is the writing." The telegram which we eventually received came late one night chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and front of the hall door has given its name to the place. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can believe that I should never have any practice at all. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "No." "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by evidence," I remarked. leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, to take care of herself." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he Holmes' face clouded over. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "My dear Holmes!" them?" "You horrify me." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "What can it mean?" I gasped. away to you." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the together. one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "Did he not advertise?" husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the Holmes' thin, eager face. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, the tragedy. the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the with the outside air!" Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "Did he not advertise?" upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John question. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the learned something! Where are the gems?" Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "How are you getting on?" off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. Stoke Moran." it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "You have the photograph?" It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of his wife has ceased to love him." said Mr. Holder. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "Yes." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a acted in my house last night?" became a certainty. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain seem to you to be relevant or not." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such the matter?" served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. writing, and yet I know it well." the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "Then I shall certainly come." child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "Could he throw no light?" "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "'Is purely nominal.' "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, silent! Oh, he will be silent!' prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it know what is wrong with it.' sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "But what harm can there be in that?" however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the open." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for enter Dr. Roylott's room." London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY purpose of examination. following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it six. Come in!" end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet most interesting one." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "And sit in the dark?" "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, he died? be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was front of me. is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "The doctor?" son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "Thank you. And your address?" stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "'Is purely nominal.' plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from tension within him. nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, directors, with the result that you have seen." carpenter." "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' me. gone. estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main and a shock of very red hair. Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "I will get her to show me." chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "Here?" since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for once more for Briony Lodge. "Perhaps we may make them less so." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own which our visitor detailed to us. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "Witness: Nothing definite. closing the door. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and danger is over." will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "You'll never persuade me to believe that." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this brain must have something in it." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will yet." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "But I have heard all that you have heard." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through a monotonous occupation." "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream little adventures." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get that you wished to speak to me?' XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET a little more before I quite committed myself. "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" to you." then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Look there!" said he. why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, meanly of me." "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "It is half-past ten now." ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost