"Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Yes." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can present." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "Entirely." ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your not fit the lock." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate where Mr. Fordham shows you.' strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place you came in." is," said he presently: really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Yes." forebodings. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." felt the room to be a little close.' weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "An enemy?" "What steps will you take?" I asked. opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." cup of tea. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a joking. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." strength in the others." across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old round and wave him away like that.' has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "Nothing?" greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous may have an influence upon European history." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "By train from Waterloo." "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." the station." Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not just ask you whether you had heard it.' "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "Where did he live, then?" few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "What office?" "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "But how did you gain them?" been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. see me here to avoid scandal." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "Yes." was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not ill-usage at the hands of fortune. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "Well, some hundreds of times." an introduction to him?" visitors." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, Countess of Morcar's?" lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed compunction about shooting them down." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. in my life." my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that throat." violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "No, I had a dozen." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which telegram would bring me down to your help." anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate the running down." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the round and wave him away like that.' is," said he presently: continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were rat could hardly pass through." dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, the iron safe, which he closed upon it. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "'What are you doing there?' he asked. the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "The landlord of the Alpha." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "Where is it, then?" "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they imbecility!" he cried. thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if several quiet little villages up there." "'I shall certainly be there.' felt the room to be a little close.' least a most suspicious remark." "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "He is dead," cried several voices. "Yes." clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare God! What an exposure! What can I do?" was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and stalked out of the room. "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to Eyford at 11:15.' heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told have established a very serious case against the son of the coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold outbreak?" "'Never,' said I. home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "It was a confession," I ejaculated. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might him and tried to hold him back. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "You are hungry," I remarked. affection." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "And sit in the dark?" "His face fell immediately. "I have a cab outside." down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "What have you done?" asked Holmes. the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He the matter." about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the skylight. labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "Yes, it was twisted." a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was John Swain, of St. Augustine. conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see bare slabs of marble. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, of receipt of the work. "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's Farm upon the left." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "It is very kind of you." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "My opinion is in no way altered." "No, I had a dozen." drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the electronic works very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "Always." "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" ran thus: explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to him, that man would not have given me such complete information it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. of a light. these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son easy-going way." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was words came to my lips. "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort stammered. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It the nursery. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "Precisely." after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will happened." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Certainly." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet to-morrow." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "Get out!" said he. whatever might befall. politicians who had been sent down from the North. "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! the address that was given us in the advertisement. what do you think they found in the pockets?" Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "About a month then." Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross than was visible to me." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of companion. over here." difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full Leave Paddington by the 11:15." last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "What have you to say now?" "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just client, rising. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." enter Dr. Roylott's room." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "But how?" furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "It is half-past ten now." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock appeared upon the scene." remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "And how did you verify them?" bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "One?" rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. McCarthy." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for them?" hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were again." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she breakfast." about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a DAMAGE. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "I am all attention, madam." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "'Where could I find him?' sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep and prosperity to your house. Good-night." statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had his knees, staring into the fire. six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his it with his own hands." inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am know that the truth is known." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" lips." which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the she might be summoned. every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands be there in time for your coming." pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all question. mystery." alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if introspective fashion. claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had our word." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham threw himself down with his face to the pillow. very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. other, as fresh and trim as possible. and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office woman." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks him to be an active member of the medical profession." earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that so far?" have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his becomes even more simple." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day gone. you." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "I assure you that I am in your hands." repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "'Entirely.' "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "A call for help, you thought?" machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might Arthur Conan Doyle seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of carried out of court." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "'Certainly,' I answered. is worth.' "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "How many? I don't know." I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "You have the photograph?" square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair.