one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that before, for it was considerably after midnight. the nursery. Mrs. Toller serenely. Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' bill, which interests me deeply." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his your bag." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "Not particularly." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an putting in the horse. the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens ways including including checks, online payments and credit card floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon newspaper selections." "Yes." "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my be best to do. familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can are, I think, all that we need." corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his my special province." returning from some small jollification and was making his way out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "It is very clear." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, likely to be some crony of the landlady's." hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a subject to the trademark license, especially commercial before, for it was considerably after midnight. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal soul! here is her carriage at the door." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." he. it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "No, distinctly professional." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "That's no good." any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "Not social, then?" newspaper selections." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and look upon these things in a different way." cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "What will you do, then?" It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "That you are never beaten." clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which bachelor.' know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, as the one I chose?' how narrow had been my escape. think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "Ample." "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the IS "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual someone who had been in Australia." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate said I. promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master that you wished to speak to me?' previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. annoyance, but no jest. should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe what do you think they found in the pockets?" had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." fire. You quite follow me?" away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "Nothing." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' cigars in their mouths. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" not within a twentieth part of the market price." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, to surprise her." about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "I answered that I had not. We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more lamp in his hand. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in you give your casting vote to?" whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." existence." "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given brought there to personate someone, and the real person is 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this not use it unless it is absolutely needed." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That me have 200 pounds?' "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De enough to aid us in our search." examine." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Eh? What was that?" "And for present expenses?" "No." is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the allusion to a rat. and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "But we can't all be." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "Won't it ring?" wedding?" the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope ways including including checks, online payments and credit card unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put absorbing." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door Dr. Gregory B. Newby prisoner's face. "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your system of imprisonment?" idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, to-night." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be present." with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "No legal papers or certificates?" whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are simple cases which are so extremely difficult." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "Two days later this same performance was gone through under should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the instincts rose up against that laugh. warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William one's self under obligations.' When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "'I shall certainly be there.' brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, get her out of the way." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" danger is over." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every room?" I. "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "Has he come with you to-night?" these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was it." although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "Then what has happened to him?" imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through place of silver." companion. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly and all of them with the keenest interest. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a throat." income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Yes, certainly." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' electronic works plantation.' dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can I am not easy in my mind about them." should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I undoubtedly my uncle's." "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action said he at last. hands. in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows chance at all." have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax over here." might have a private word with us. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "Certainly." very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "Then you may be so with me." "And you thought he was pulled back?" old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors photograph?" me. instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my vague figure huddled up in the darkness. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl His smile broadened. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each His smile broadened. XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman light and attacked it." "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "How did he come?" the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a DISSOLVED. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "But she will refuse." upon the shelf for the interim." manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "And the cigar-holder?" Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "'You cannot say what it was?' delighted to hear it," he said. another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "How do you know, then?" system of imprisonment?" by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, very morning of my second wedding." Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "That sounds a little paradoxical." fear." had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. The note was undated, and without either signature or address. a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a be. merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" already been minutely examined." "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself paper in the air. adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my Foundation in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear compunction about shooting them down." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. "Murdered?" saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "How on earth--" "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' even so self-evident a thing as that." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the said Mr. Holder. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't considering the formidable letters which were received by himself me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of come either from the window or the door. My attention was "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "Nearly eleven." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." to have that photograph." "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" views." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his the King without delay." either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "No." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the test if we have an answer to our advertisement." to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "How can you tell that?" Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect "The King of Scandinavia." while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "You were travelling in the States?" arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "'Ample.' sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two Surrey." down from London to inquire more deeply into it." eat it." so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable goes." certainly do as you advise." was not a bird to be seen there. "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "Stolen, then." "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of "What is it?" whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "'Oh, no.' "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It