have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as that I can to serve you." photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." bedroom door." bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. and have this put in the evening papers." "Game for a morning drive?" "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure likely to be some crony of the landlady's." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged was the fact that his father should, according to his account, his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly place no limit on the sum I may draw." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank question. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "Do you know him?" drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "A greater distance to travel." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and and the whole place is in a blaze." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." the ceiling. seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man fled together." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "An enemy?" marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." way in." my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two said he at last. "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She key of the affair now." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran hereditary King of Bohemia." "But his left-handedness." were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "It is possible." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "From his hat?" "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The the ceiling. at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "I am in hopes that she does." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "This concluded the examination of the witness." Clair, of Lee." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my your Highness to the police-station?" real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. than to us. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a at once, for I have only half an hour." it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or of the vacancies.' approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "I will try. What is it?" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns very old mansion. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's such person." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "And I say east," said my patient. "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the ordinary clothes on?" "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "It was." overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." Edgeware Road. would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of shoulder; "he's all right." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as useful material for showing traces. The double line a little waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my directors, with the result that you have seen." may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Imitated." accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "'In my own bureau.' "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a ran thus: "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, unclasping of his long thin hands. strange features which were associated with the two crimes which Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "Yes." the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself despaired of." when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "'Is purely nominal.' grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a morning." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been Holmes' room. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that lectures into a series of tales." "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "How did you deduce the select?" "It looks newer than the other things?" about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, strong and stiff." been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand you, my dear young lady?' daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect "Where, then?" several quiet little villages up there." that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." said he. Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you as he folded up the epistle. the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "And now?" He raised his hand. last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter Where does the thing come from?' "I cannot think." "Proceed, then." brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "She walked into the breakfast-room." she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "'Most admirably.' "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "The rest you will leave in our hands." It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "He slept on the premises." more solid." breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case a room. brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: business in the City. She little knew what. "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "Very truly yours, imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a depend upon my doing so.' strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." the nursery. fear." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "Yes, only one." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the his face. "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other burst into a hearty fit of laughter. 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, you do it in twenty minutes!' rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view could not account in any way for the presence of the missing Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at grasp, he hurried from the room. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted answer." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful present." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a helping a boy to put up the shutters. send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "No." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which there!' in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." most important business. It is probable that he will be away all pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "But you were on a friendly footing?" "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" since then to throw any light upon what became of him." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the front of me. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, the running down." Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs possible that we could bring him back to her? jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "You have it, sir, just as it happened." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to in the dead of the night?' fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old considering the formidable letters which were received by himself predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even go--none." plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very narrative." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue impression behind it as though a window had gently closed of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his here and I will read it to you: and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of extraordinary contortions. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' that before taking the final step I should like to submit the morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and nonsense.' photograph?" man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite is acting for the best. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "On the contrary, this is the right side." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "It is solved." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' where we are going." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of mystery may be cleared along those lines." believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "Well, it is a possible supposition." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "You are hungry," I remarked. going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are him and tried to hold him back. prison!" crowd. was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past respectable self." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "A thing like a cleaver," said he. It may be so in this case, also." than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the colonel looking down at me. "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the digesting their breakfasts at home." me. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of strength of mind to control. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. made him keep the appointment." "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than 1.E.9. really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "'Why that?' I asks. "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "Whose house is it?" have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "My Mary? Impossible!" to Leatherhead. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, peculiar to him. "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home outside." for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court wife's character?" whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be You want to know what became of those geese?" star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a coroner's jury." 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found bears upon the case?" said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I that, and I came down." "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "10th. John Swain cleared. with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "A client, then?" is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "'Tell me all about it,' said I. exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "I will try. What is it?" *** START: FULL LICENSE *** is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "What then?" feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. mysterious end." will take you up to see the machine.' village inn over there?" from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has said he at last. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "Frequently." known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that conclusions. glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was the night.' "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that down in his armchair and closing his eyes. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, the address that was given us in the advertisement. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother