his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to troubles have been weighing upon his mind. corner of the building. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as affection." sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this father's place of business?" consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, trying to your nerves." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was few hundred pounds.' upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his troubles have been weighing upon his mind. electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the so.' views." has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "'Not at all. I only doubt--' one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "Yes." good-night and bustled off upon her way. nothing with him." which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof lectures into a series of tales." between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until Street. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain away into the river." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "No, I am descending." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "What then?" "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that "Witness: I must still refuse. though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in carried out of court." "Why serious?" believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "I am armed." as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while system of imprisonment?" case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side shadow pass over his face as I spoke. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, never came back." Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." outbreak?" Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for gigantic client. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "And the cigar-holder?" God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "I would pay ten." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed legal crime." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was the iron safe, which he closed upon it. events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look gives a meaning to it." "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such constraint." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though main points of my analysis." such person." had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. said Mr. Holder. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of round with crates and massive boxes. "'I shall certainly be there.' man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "It is possible." Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "Pray continue your narrative." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "And you can do nothing until then?" feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an plantation.' Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular ways of our fellow-men." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." look dissatisfied." side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned there." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "What?" an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The gives a meaning to it." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "'Never.' "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Yes, he did." said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two it." Doctor, of the paper and the date." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "My dear Holmes!" you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" in his hands." shall use the carriage to-night." reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for the coronet at all injured?" accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would at my remark. smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly hopeless attempt at recovering them." against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall down. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away asked with his eyes open. reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "At what time?" done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to should be so warm over such a trifle." understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the horse could go." completely overtopped every other consideration that we both tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular most important business. It is probable that he will be away all metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "'Ample.' value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, me." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to I shall continue with my miserable story. change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "Yes." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek Leadenhall Street--and--" course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was conceal it?" was not a bird to be seen there. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the second window is the one that I jumped from." branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a said he, "my real name is James Ryder." town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with considering the formidable letters which were received by himself to a more successful conclusion." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to garden below. however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second forehead. "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our coat-tails." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we colour had been driven from his face. "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. the roots. "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "Yes, all." was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." him." papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged four million human beings all jostling each other within the ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "'A dozen yards or so.' this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the events than those which have happened in my own family." opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, and the whole place is in a blaze." "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of and a shock of very red hair. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." DAMAGE. to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "How can you tell that?" know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life tension within him. tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "'Why that?' I asks. cup of tea. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" strong and stiff." home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" tell them apart.' along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the companion quietly. Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." my room." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "My dear Holmes!" fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's and I shall be with you presently." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. the bottom.' work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may anything to do with the matter?" anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "And the murderer?" Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional "What then?" year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which question you as to those details which seem to me to be most pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to The telegram which we eventually received came late one night to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "Was there a secret marriage?" at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of arrangements." "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some on in his house." remarked. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he the warnings." heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the highly," said Holmes. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "And the cigar-holder?" Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" the King without delay." standing smiling on the door-step. "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "What is it, then--a fire?" tied." "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must strong and stiff." A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in straighten it?" an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending tapping his fingers upon the table. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of made him keep the appointment." without a word or a look. of Mr. Rucastle's." searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg-tm License. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "I am all attention, madam." hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "It is possible." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This in the dead of the night?' and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the habit of advancing money.' "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would delighted to hear it," he said. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, any." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler whereabouts. you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at my former friend and companion. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." Young McCarthy must be got off, however." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as populous neighbourhood." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "And sit in the dark?" That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which right! Sit down and let us talk it over." in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that I think that I could be of assistance to you." "'About the same.' "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "Married! When?" "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "I am in hopes that she does." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. believe that I should never have any practice at all. as this. Pray let me have the details." lectures into a series of tales." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, six. Come in!" "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and I held the little printed slip to the light. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. union?" whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless