know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been little adventures." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to photograph a cabinet?" "'Is purely nominal.' frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "What! a murderous attack?" the matter." remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As crime." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of nice household for a young lady." the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your information in his hands the value of which he did not himself of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "But his left-handedness." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "'And the work?' cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Pray do so." "I cannot tell." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "'Never,' said I. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "Yes, but only for you and me." week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "But to whom?" black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "Why? What do you mean?" "In San Francisco, a year ago." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "Why did you pick him?" "It's nothing of the kind." McCarthy's innocence. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own the bed, and you in that chair." his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual done what I asked you, Jones?" 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "No." terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at mystery." his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. back into the street. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my morning." my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "My last client of the sort was a king." serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some went to the Alpha were town bred." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, conceal it?" knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. ways of our fellow-men." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "Certainly." permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever directors, with the result that you have seen." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "'As governess?' hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few and looked back. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, bill, which interests me deeply." Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "I would give my fortune to have them back." basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what other lovers by making love himself." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another whether it answered to the description of any of their note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "And I." them present such singular features as the strange train of in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "An accident, I presume?" "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion looking up at the numbers of the houses." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away over here." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. answer." trifles." crime. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "My stepfather's business papers." know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You said he at last. "What do you mean?" "It is no ordinary one." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised spark where all is dark to me." no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close Have you good authority for what you say?" you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "I saw her in conversation with her maid." visitors." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had matters immensely." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting our word." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "It was an hour's good drive." "What, then?" was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional fled together." address. 1.F. "Will you go?" "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me over part of the map. "What do you read?" giving me time to thank him. "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "I cannot tell." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "I think it very unlikely." Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I them?" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had system of imprisonment?" while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "Yes, but only for you and me." "I came to find a friend." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall and the colonel ushered me in. that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "Absolutely?" either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "The knees of his trousers." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can address. my special province." tell him that I know him to be innocent." "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "'And the work?' "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "And how have you succeeded?" wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "That was it, sir." Eyford at 11:15.' for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "Yes, but only for you and me." one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what that you wished to speak to me?' the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into woman who has had her own way to make in the world. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "Because he was handy and would come cheap." the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I occurred." dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more written, and locked the door of the office after me. "None." They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, cup of tea. "I shall most certainly do so." considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me a few minutes he said that it would be all right. awaited us upon the table. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would nothing of it?" that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double of Fenchurch Street." might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, at my own good fortune. can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the light and attacked it." have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "Then I am your man." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view bedroom door." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "The vanishing of the lady." from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took carpenter." sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, horse could go." Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off was shining brightly. as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Holmes. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "You think that he is dead?" the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I you want, then?' furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "None." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "'And the work?' word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "Did you become engaged then?" "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "Quite so. She has her freedom." listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should because she had spent so short a time in this country that she unclasping of his long thin hands. he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "Then he might have called to you?" work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has national property. I was determined that the law should have its shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where my room." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back prison!" tassel actually lying upon the pillow. see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the formed some opinion?" trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "But she could not love him." and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. records." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and to have been novel and of interest." "'Never.' depend upon your compliance." "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and that before taking the final step I should like to submit the really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and bonnet, and went out." swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Yes, from Horsham." "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "He is dead," cried several voices. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. never came back." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way there was no need for father to know." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, noble correspondent could be. is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were bill, which interests me deeply." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "Perfectly so." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every returning from some small jollification and was making his way as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a knowledge of the world." and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "And the cigar-holder?" should be taken.' "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "'Yes, I promise.' "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, skylight. "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in writer." "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a which it had come upon my father." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "Yes." a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, to a more successful conclusion." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in night.' said he. however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "One horse?" interjected Holmes. to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "'Never,' said I. office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by him." slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the this unhappy family?" follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "And what then?" chambers. "I would pay ten." the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "And how?" Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy been shamefully used." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "I cannot as yet see any connection." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "Ha! you find it so?" "By no means."