drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered about. "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done the general public were present, then?" There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" way: even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said be sorry for having acted so harshly." "And you don't know his address?" agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had the very morning of the wedding." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we what I may call a really hard day's work." forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and families. Now for the facts. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" have established a very serious case against the son of the "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "I will get her to show me." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "Proceed, then." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that like gravel from a pit.' He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "But she will refuse." into the bag, and made for the door. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you appeared upon the scene." against a man in the prime of life?" if only as a check to my own memory." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British along the entire front of the house, with three long windows this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the key turn in the lock." sake, don't!" "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of I approached. reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. foresight and the moral retrogression?" known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "Who by?" it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so there!' red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham October 9, 1890. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty nothing with him." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. copied or distributed: unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "Because he was handy and would come cheap." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "That is not always so easy." out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "By no means." though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had see me here to avoid scandal." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and fatally injured? "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. there is a decided draught." of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "I think that it is very probable." wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting people don't know." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man crime." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept think that he is innocent?" Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding in one or two places in England?' and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches to-night?' 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. before the coroner and the police-court." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any do.' planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from you want, then?' the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the Cross for the Continent." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." "'Most admirably.' could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. could go. awkward doing business with an alias." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "Upon what point?" practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "'Is purely nominal.' something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Come in!" said Holmes. betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which the tragedy. upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it there when the Rucastles went away." "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "And is that all?" entirely devoid of interest." forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was I am not easy in my mind about them." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was your Highness to the police-station?" mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "'What, the red-headed man?' me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I digesting their breakfasts at home." sufficient punishment." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works point in the dark hollow of his hand. about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "'I shall certainly be there.' By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear him. the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "To ruin me." "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I IS when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the entirely lost his self-respect." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the cigars in the box." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite side. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Gutenberg-tm License. most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were touch that coronet?' affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out Street. coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss pound a week." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to "What! a murderous attack?" "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that appointment with me for six o'clock?" unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the grasp, he hurried from the room. some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a fat-encircled eyes. possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Yes, it was twisted." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the may never be exposed to such a temptation." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and looking up at the numbers of the houses." accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "Your sister is dead, then?" correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The him!" "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence he. them?" "It was an hour's good drive." lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "Precisely so. But how--" him to go away.' friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "Pray let us have it, for all that." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "Which surely he restored to their owner?" coat-tails." and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "Very much so." Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "I am all attention, madam." brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "And help." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "He is dead," cried several voices. granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. a good hundred miles off by now." where she found matters as described by the last witness. "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "You heard nothing yourself last night?" man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our into the bag, and made for the door. was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees the coronet in his hands?" all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that business?" be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, to you." followed. "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" light and attacked it." would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no the coronet at all injured?" "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "You are all wrong." reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the side-table." and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "Holmes, the busybody!" "And from a noble client?" of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP noble correspondent could be. "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid and files of the old papers, following the future career of every villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. question," said Holmes, smiling. He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a least a most suspicious remark." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the you?" completely overtopped every other consideration that we both You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "Quite so. She has her freedom." "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "My stepfather's business papers." morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you gone before you can get him to hospital." also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third this man was intellectual?" some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of closely." than to us. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "And what then?" "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my read over the extraordinary announcement. 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both go back?" and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you about here speaks of his kindness to him." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "Will you go?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "I have come for advice." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently hurried by. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little