that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. the inner apartment." belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "The gentleman I describe." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "What! Had he lost his wife?" no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "When did she vanish, then?" slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "That is possible." down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you time." "In the cells." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it Holmes. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), that I can to serve you." my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little to talk it over. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project 'please.'" attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "Will you bet, then?" this Miss Turner." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope wedding?" "And on what day did he meet his death?" Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "But of what society?" stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow was the fact that his father should, according to his account, chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed begun to whiten, even as mine has." "We must have a cab." fear." "Imitated." down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "Absolutely none." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss next day. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "What!" he roared. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "But I have heard all that you have heard." "But how will you look?" It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "On your arm?" Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "'And the work?' fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Of what?" her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the him to be an active member of the medical profession." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs appointment with me for six o'clock?" from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, morning." "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its again, where I was soon asleep. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor interest. They are important, you understand, without being and effective." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the that you saw all that I did." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of undoubtedly my uncle's." "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders with frightened eyes at his accuser. past. purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon should be so warm over such a trifle." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the your only hope of safety." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought Heh?' dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at lectures into a series of tales." rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There her also." "BALLARAT." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until certainly not very gracious." detained." so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "Not him." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "Then, as to money?" Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are weigh very heavily upon my conscience." follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "'What do you call purely nominal?' "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to him to be an active member of the medical profession." lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. him, that man would not have given me such complete information ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY forecastle of an emigrant ship. good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "Not particularly." horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the had no one to advise her at such a crisis." little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "Can I be of assistance?" "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy a suggestive one." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. which was all perfectly true. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary go back?" "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler prisoner's face. Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than unprofitable." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." visitors." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. have got?" prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "You are all wrong." interests were the same as his." to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and not as remarkable as your advertisement." IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "'I am sure that I do not know.' in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the have not had my rubber." in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a certainly do as you advise." solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "Then he might have called to you?" never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "Where, then, is my wife?" "Yes, only one." slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in people don't know." appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, considering the formidable letters which were received by himself firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "Entirely." them, and came down just as you departed. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without chance." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "I am sure." compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and 'I should be able to look after that for you.' street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, orange pips. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my conduct the inquiry." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was occupations.' any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "And how have you succeeded?" a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. I was concerned in it." disturbance in my wife." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "Your French gold?" some terrible trap for her." the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his is a common subject for conversation. entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they records." play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for ill-usage at the hands of fortune. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "Witness: I must still refuse. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently Arthur Conan Doyle saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in rose-bushes. sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could points to suicide?" predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "He disappeared so suddenly." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a three fields round his house, and there he would take his became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." this unhappy family?" then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since read over the extraordinary announcement. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "Dark enough and sinister enough." "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been not, dad?" she asked. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress "I guessed as much." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "Nothing." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things Countess of Morcar's?" "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "Then I shall certainly come." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of is," said he presently: "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well hurried by. "Were they all fastened this morning?" even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between meanly of me." is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, from you?" interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "I don't say that. Perhaps." character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a October 9, 1890. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "He said that you could solve anything." photograph a cabinet?" our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of than to us. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "How did you trace it, then?" opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making page at http://pglaf.org 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' Does that suggest anything?" "Witness: Nothing definite. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "My Mary? Impossible!" went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business writers could invent nothing more crude." "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the my special province." a suggestive one." borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "We have tried and failed." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, shall use the carriage to-night." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in bedroom door." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "Nothing." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I