his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all breakfast." "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining business in the City. She little knew what. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social had this final quarrel? it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "I promise," said Holmes. incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was happened." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked digesting their breakfasts at home." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "It is possible." "But I have heard all that you have heard." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, followed. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, congratulate you again." "But she could not love him." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' and have this put in the evening papers." one of the states of the Union." brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would It may be so in this case, also." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "Because he was handy and would come cheap." and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "That's no good." "What do you mean?" carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour brought there to personate someone, and the real person is Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and character. to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right humiliation." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near notes," he said. Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think already referred to. offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about said I. "Pray do so." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly the inquest, and which are worth considering." The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the father's young wife. heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit Chief Executive and Director "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "Entirely." public press." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "'I am sure that I do not know.' but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that how narrow had been my escape. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "Imitated." "I have my revolver," said I. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was never will be, entirely cleared up. providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "Nothing." the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may means taking possession of that which another person has a prior least a most suspicious remark." photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain south, for the country is more deserted there." "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but at a side door. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "Very. But will he see it?" "But to whom?" "It goes to the housekeeper's room." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "That you are never beaten." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the of your young ladies.' St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "Then I do not see the point." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." he. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had it. adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" Lee, in the county of Kent." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything photograph a cabinet?" the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "He said too much." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, lamp. disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a papers." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. politicians who had been sent down from the North. cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so like gravel from a pit.' corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with the dangers which encompass me." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! residence of the great financier. "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I his fortune, and I went back to pa. again, where I was soon asleep. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of goes." mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to are, I think, all that we need." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. obstinate." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled results." light and attacked it." beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each that he has suffered." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "Not him." miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "That is it on the dressing-table." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his intimate personal affairs in this public manner." sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly that you can jump it.' "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "One horse?" interjected Holmes. returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes foresight and the moral retrogression?" upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "'Ten to two.' Pool. since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, colonel looking down at me. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as child?' Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and Countess of Morcar's?" morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "Nearly eleven." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been I shall continue with my miserable story. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "'Yes, sir.' never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a was a perfect sample of the class. though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let figure." "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently enter Dr. Roylott's room." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "Then, how do you know?" of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "Texas, I think." our word." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that locked." the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "I saw her in conversation with her maid." system of imprisonment?" need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? manager. professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being searched, without anything being found which could incriminate somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "Quite so. She has her freedom." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "That also I could fathom." "The gentleman I describe." very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not the general public were present, then?" submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes morning." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." front of me. There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "I will do it." my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "Then I shall certainly come." dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it breakfast." house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders over part of the map. "What do you read?" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was that threaten you." to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the but preventing her from injuring another. enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you hopeless attempt at recovering them." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger handed it to him. impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this careless servant girl?" cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "'Ten to two.' size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch may never be exposed to such a temptation." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual through." the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and is worth.' "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." acquaintance?" "And why in hopes?" the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret awaited us upon the table. which it had come upon my father." "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little to that open window." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance round with crates and massive boxes. What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The corner of the building. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "And now?" He raised his hand. "The Cedars?" "No." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? wanted for ourselves." "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." delirious. We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "'And the work?' "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Won't it ring?" hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, fashion which was peculiar to him. the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "And your mother is alive?" "Not in a good cause." "What?" front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "And now?" He raised his hand. newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "Absolutely none." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank colour had been driven from his face. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "And when will you call?" discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "That is not always so easy." deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "Frequently." "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "And when will you call?" the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of and the colonel ushered me in. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "I am sure." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with out of this horrible affair." practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "And on what day did he meet his death?"