"Where, then?" used to be." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My locked." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until said Mr. Holder. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "What then?" "And what did you learn from him?" now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "And what did you learn from him?" "I see many objections to any such theory." and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to have been better. It is all right." this man was intellectual?" "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "But I have heard all that you have heard." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, six. Come in!" putting in the horse. "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few laugh and put his lips to my ear. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an directly by questioning you." rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have relief. however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found Serpentine Avenue. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover redistribution. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, himself to hunt down. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the the inner apartment." business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce "Yes, all." ourselves in the office." "'No, I know no one in these parts.' time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "But how?" never to learn it at all." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the been lifted and conveyed somewhere." pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: roused himself from his reverie. knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in begin with, and I had not got mine yet." pierced for earrings?" "'In my own bureau.' has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous the so-precious time, but come!' from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "In San Francisco, a year ago." "'Why that?' I asks. photograph?" look upon these things in a different way." "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life be. it right.' Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "Certainly." your billet.' thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. of the efforts of the United States government and of the better while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "Why, what do you mean?" "And why?" "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the as he folded up the epistle. is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" started for the Temple to see my husband. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "'What do you call purely nominal?' matter over." into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "And how?" hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. writer." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. nonsense.' doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a your equipment. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might 1.E.9. eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his second." was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the weapon." manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" into the room. "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But there!' wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation disappearance of the bride.'" blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "Then I can wait in the next room." compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "But how?" "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "'Never.' sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check colour had been driven from his face. calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "How on earth--" 11:15.' "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" detained." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "Why did you beat the pavement?" alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. families. Now for the facts. money should be paid at once.' arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of telegram would bring me down to your help." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "It is his hat." in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Bought." "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down father's young wife. American. Then who could this American be, and why should he it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "I have solved it." "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "Not in the least." Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands "Stolen." "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method This is what he says: however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more point our research must commence, and we will begin it by Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I pity, because in other respects you would really have done very It may be so in this case, also." recall any case within my experience which looked at the first were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand "Really! You surprise me." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had horse could go." look upon these things in a different way." exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave enough to aid us in our search." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "I have seen the police." "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent chance at all." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "How many? I don't know." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them off." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone ourselves in the office." "One of the highest in England." the very morning of the wedding." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. himself to tell his story. interests were the same as his." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the into her hand at the door and which lured her within their stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "No, I had a dozen." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "What! Had he lost his wife?" As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I these bleak autumnal evenings." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "Now, then, what's the last entry?" without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I introspective fashion. "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "No. His orders were to stay in the house." both be extremely obliged.' "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that prisoner's face. act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air system of imprisonment?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "He is still with you, I presume?" What do you deduce from it?" the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "There are none." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net point in the dark hollow of his hand. grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "The Coroner: What do you mean? "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Yes." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is already referred to. "And your mother is alive?" very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley to-night's adventure." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my you want, then?' thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite papers diligently of late, have you not?" his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at digesting their breakfasts at home." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the becomes even more simple." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in have an American origin." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had II. too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "What! You do not mean bodies?" which I could not give. He asked for Alice. saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Have you her photograph?" have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really "Just look it up, then." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best is so. I know all about McCarthy." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four this poor creature." "Yes, all." feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of stalked out of the room. was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be Street. recover the gem." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock crime." "Then he might have called to you?" stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "It missed him, then?" this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "Yes, sir." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to most interesting one." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all events than those which have happened in my own family." the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "Did he not advertise?" that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "Yes, I have one waiting." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be and wait." weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which memory. who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the before, for it was considerably after midnight. mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "Whose house is it?" practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "My photograph." learned something! Where are the gems?" answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some outbreak?" unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at bare slabs of marble. "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such