"Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being key of the affair now." hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. returned to France?" saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been nothing of it?" said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. woman." matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or gentleman's clothes. however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "It is his hat." for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to back to my heart. the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "Stoke Moran?" said he. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "What do you make of that, Watson?" studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "Could he throw no light?" carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from arrangements." "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." Count Von Kramm." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. meant it for the best. at a side door. pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in orange pips. including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir the one as in the other." black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "ARAT," I read. "'I am sure if I had known--' "We must have a cab." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "Yes. He waved his hands." "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "Which surely he restored to their owner?" gone. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I the coronet in his hand?" introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in words came to my lips. I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Yes, certainly." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a arms and began to sob in a high treble key. said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by sit on the left-hand side of the driver." one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police despaired of." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "And Miss Sutherland?" John Swain, of St. Augustine. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "Entirely." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "I cannot as yet see any connection." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves than was visible to me." house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, you for a few hours?" seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' Street. The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "This concluded the examination of the witness." three of the beryls in it, was missing. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the congratulate you again." was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of absolutely follow my advice in every respect." surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "How do you know, then?" pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was God! What an exposure! What can I do?" persecution?" have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then here." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from Again Holmes raved in the air. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold with you alone." "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend quick march!" ran thus: off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows Farm upon the left." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "My dear Holmes!" as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and appeared upon the scene." "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may tail." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets I. remarked. rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin open." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "Witness: Nothing definite. 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. in a very precise fashion." had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the in the port of London." "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much where Mr. Fordham shows you.' turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for wedding?" "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "She told me to ask you." "It is to him that this trophy belongs." wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it "Nothing." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from crime." suspect him." buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which likely to be some crony of the landlady's." fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss all that?" look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "I don't say that. Perhaps." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "Tired-looking or fresh?" her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "Really! You surprise me." "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to wall." had died away into the silence from which it rose. "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see married her." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Have you her photograph?" most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover depend upon your compliance." unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine a suggestive one." me what he had done with the three missing stones. beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily window when the police appeared." calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "It was a confession," I ejaculated. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" been able to understand it, in a very few words. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "And it is--" "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "That is it on the dressing-table." despaired of." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "The murder was done with it." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "And I say east," said my patient. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the in him." "Pray tell us what has happened to you." a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not affection." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "I don't believe it." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at events, Mr. Windibank!" Dr. Gregory B. Newby "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "Very. But will he see it?" assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door of this gang." for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce and inquire as to the address." where she found matters as described by the last witness. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and look dissatisfied." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as his eyes and forehead. "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "Can I be of assistance?" to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "I have seen the police." "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed away in different directions, and I went off to make my own XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES towards the blaze. have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "And you don't know his address?" vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "Ample." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No ceremony." the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my garden below. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled will not take me long to tell. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "Deserted you?" "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "Nothing." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "But not more so than I to find you." drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a was keenly on my guard against him. "You have it, sir, just as it happened." with frightened eyes at his accuser. go back?" "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "Then, how do you know?" at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." shoulder; "he's all right." Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "I think that I had better go, Holmes." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" long narrative. "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them You can understand that this register and diary may implicate Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had suddenly upon us." him to go away.' his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in stalked out of the room. of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called of." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came tear off another piece?' moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste client, rising. our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Did he not advertise?" "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his other means.' Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "I see many objections to any such theory." and it need not interfere very much with one's other "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "'Yes, it was gone.' could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "How about poison?" Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "What, then?" little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the Again Holmes raved in the air. "I have a cab outside." chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at present." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "But of what society?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled ceremony." emerged. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name hopeless attempt at recovering them." Street. he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and already referred to. and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which the window, rose as we entered. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of one else, I think." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a must be when I saw the door open.' before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "'Certainly,' I answered. opportunities to fix the problem. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in way in everything. "To an end?" good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a have I gained?" would apply.' and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "Then how many are there?" Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "None." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "Dark enough and sinister enough." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?"