recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat disturbance in my wife." research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do ways of our fellow-men." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me together. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of helping a boy to put up the shutters. all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in I have it here in my museum." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Always." "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle could go. make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he that?' "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his in your London, you will know that the office of the company is of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "Stolen, then." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and voice. place no limit on the sum I may draw." anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events better grown goose." direction." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "Yes." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my waste of energy." The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing the inquest, and which are worth considering." or other trace. But how on earth--" "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium second window is the one that I jumped from." us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then of campaign. "What do you make of that, Watson?" saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "You have compromised yourself seriously." glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" Holmes' thin, eager face. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the writing, and yet I know it well." any more." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" at a side door. "Will you go?" object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "Because he was handy and would come cheap." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else without a word or a look. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am little adventures." country, and eventually married, without anyone having a it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white said he, "my real name is James Ryder." opened the door, and slipped through. first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. manager. skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' train.' that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of and files of the old papers, following the future career of every of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this one or two very singular points about this room. For example, house for five minutes.' one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we allusion to a rat. light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "Do you go out much in society?" "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "'Is purely nominal.' was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "So it appears." intrusion of other matters." which was all perfectly true. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the had died away into the silence from which it rose. "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "He disappeared so suddenly." avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is address. his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious electronic works prove to be little relation between the different incidents of case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." your bag." for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Precisely." the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "Yes, from Horsham." and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of intrusion of other matters." "That's no good." "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "Yes." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged case-book, which he consulted. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "I am all attention, madam." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on your Highness to the police-station?" "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out think you a quite exceptional woman." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This empty. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "No, finished." attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own even so self-evident a thing as that." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the License. You must require such a user to return or ceremony." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "No. His orders were to stay in the house." the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet standing smiling on the door-step. mystery." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid were unconscious?" "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when one's self under obligations.' Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and acquaintance?" was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be straightened it out again. colonel looking down at me. where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am placed his cuttings. "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "By all means." affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited perplexity from it to my illustrious client. may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a and glanced through. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless and glanced through. out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry over with notes and figures. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two because she had spent so short a time in this country that she most interesting one." routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of furiously. to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from do.' "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double made him keep the appointment." bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "Never." gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The to-night." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." with you?" The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "A call for help, you thought?" saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps if only as a check to my own memory." "No bad?" "I answered that I had not. the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. this unhappy family?" say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "And what did you learn from him?" "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "Yes, he did." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he respectable self." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the himself to hunt down. strength in the others." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought at home. before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the breakfast and whispered something to her husband. stood on the top of it. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "'How far from the body?' this poor creature." "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, daring than any effort of the imagination." have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have Pope's Court. "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "And sit in the dark?" interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by made him keep the appointment." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when society." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, are, and they are waiting for us." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been delighted to hear it," he said. although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he the nursery. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my careless servant girl?" make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural behind me. him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the letters?" "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, I was concerned in it." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate written. "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the might help us?" "Murdered?" younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "It is very clear." sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "But what harm can there be in that?" "No legal papers or certificates?" "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall second." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any experiences." "Ah!" stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." have one." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few passage and a tap at the door. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in anything to do with the matter?" village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace felt the room to be a little close.' 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, enter Dr. Roylott's room." was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I weigh very heavily upon my conscience." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round me upon any point which I do not make clear." arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the fait accompli?" Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I intimate personal affairs in this public manner." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "I think it very unlikely." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the answered with a sidelong glance. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty Eyford at 11:15.' the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know the one as in the other." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is Clair, of Lee." "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, again before evening." to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a felt?" details." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." side. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "It is a murder, then?" gone before you can get him to hospital." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the married her." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly,