flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "The doctor?" hair?' settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Yes, all." "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." do.' original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "'Entirely.' rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "He slept on the premises." most important business. It is probable that he will be away all be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, nights." find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect foot. head. So long, then!" was feeling which was the fattest.' outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "Why, what do you mean?" see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "Absolutely?" particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "Where, then, is my wife?" had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such have had none more fantastic than this." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. call you and give you the chance." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of the south-west, I see." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There into the room. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "And who is her maid?" wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in since then to throw any light upon what became of him." mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an "'About the same.' that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no occurred." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." a little more before I quite committed myself. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply fire. You quite follow me?" wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "What! You do not mean bodies?" time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "What are they?" ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. to tell." "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the one which it was hard to resist. she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in and wait." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the had died away into the silence from which it rose. utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "The doctor?" "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "The doctor?" were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; he. Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "And you don't know his address?" freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "This photograph!" "No. His orders were to stay in the house." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the beyond words. "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I events, Mr. Windibank!" spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora straightened it out again. me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, she might be summoned. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "Never to return." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. mystery!" the nursery. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. were new raised from a basin. before the coroner and the police-court." company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the remarked. "And is that all?" "It is possible." of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. not come at once?" "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "And help." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to people in all walks of life. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint do." know all about it," he snarled. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to vanished into the darkness. scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "He slept on the premises." The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we joking. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. such attractions and accomplishments?' is entirely a question of barometric pressure." and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official Arthur Conan Doyle "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "And who is her maid?" "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "Precisely so. But how--" "Where did he live, then?" eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Dark enough and sinister enough." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, Street. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been has little to do with my story." to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." and capable of preserving a secret.' table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them legal crime." through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled might have a private word with us. "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. my little problems." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. entirely devoid of interest." "Pray let us have it, for all that." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "It is half-past ten now." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself has little to do with my story." present." Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "Imitated." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did is a common subject for conversation. I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not you, my dear young lady?' the nursery. her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest think you a quite exceptional woman." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, seven miles from Eyford Station.' unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good ordinary clothes on?" American. Then who could this American be, and why should he quickly through a disagreeable task. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his confronted him. "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders that before taking the final step I should like to submit the some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "Absolutely?" "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible room. They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of front of me. pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and conceal it?" whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. exactly what you advise." prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "You don't mind breaking the law?" Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon article?" "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was she might be summoned. turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided generous with you in money matters.' "Where did he live, then?" faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a to surprise her." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. definite end. once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, are windows in it, of course?" "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared because she had spent so short a time in this country that she are, I think, all that we need." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually Again Holmes raved in the air. product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "My stepfather's business papers." exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I that, and I came down." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "And how did you find out?" wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door himself to tell his story. held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." in this note: scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a companion quietly. "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of must be when I saw the door open.' peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "No, distinctly professional." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire legal crime." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and certainly not very gracious." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but business came to an end." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock out." saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a here." Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "To an English lawyer named Norton." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he hard-headed British jury." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less Clair, of Lee." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. instituted." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "We were both in the photograph." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "Entirely." police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his chair. me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "Certainly." o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' whatever might befall. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" Arthur Conan Doyle McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's something of him before." "But she could not love him." not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right see a sister of mine apply for." suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as which was all perfectly true. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.'