the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an washing it down with a long draught of water. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the handed it to him. black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' been with you?" and looked back. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." father's young wife. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was chill to my heart. "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and you." work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "Pray continue your narrative." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties directors, with the result that you have seen." "Very truly yours, not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite towards the blaze. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong disturbance in my wife." open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, in. they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" morning." hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "None. Neville wrote those words." "I warn you that they are very incomplete." Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. some water from a caraffe. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." awkward doing business with an alias." waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "May I see it?" the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where friend's singular character. Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up impression behind it as though a window had gently closed to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own is four-and-twenty." your Highness to the police-station?" "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been bears upon the case?" frequently gained my first real insight into the character of and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "You saw the ventilator, too?" of note-paper. It read in this fashion: other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who "Certainly." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch any more." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "Witness: Nothing definite. means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of to that open window." heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his business." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "I see many objections to any such theory." however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I My friend smiled. well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. to Leatherhead. surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a about. Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark threw himself down with his face to the pillow. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "Nothing?" the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the "Where, then?" set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' generous with you in money matters.' day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might in the dead of the night?' crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a through." fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "Just look it up, then." how narrow had been my escape. her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "You were travelling in the States?" "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "Nothing?" "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, look dissatisfied." consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." copied or distributed: memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of the date of his supposed suicide." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent despair." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then coroner's jury." emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in him to go away.' "No good news?" look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "Here?" surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project manager. "Very truly yours, the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that as he remarks, very much against the son." strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "One horse?" interjected Holmes. here." Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "Texas, I think." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to hopeless attempt at recovering them." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "Pray let us have it, for all that." already been minutely examined." power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the if she died from some sudden fright." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back you, my dear young lady?' consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening such attractions and accomplishments?' the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the I am not easy in my mind about them." silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. o'clock is it?" disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "On the contrary, this is the right side." "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "The vanishing of the lady." trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would round and wave him away like that.' the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My I took the paper from him and read as follows: the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a society." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "To an end?" behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the experiences." "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are criminal. We have already had experience of such." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "But how will you look?" Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had his face. "What then?" met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major in darkness. some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: chill to my heart. useful material for showing traces. The double line a little crime." is so. I know all about McCarthy." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," tension within him. other means.' gentleman's clothes. "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "Yes, he did." "That's no good." the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. o'clock is it?" I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. it." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said in him." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "I cannot say that I have." foresight and the moral retrogression?" "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "Who by?" caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good it." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so to change my dress. "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "But it has twice been burgled." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's enter into my head. But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very passage and a tap at the door. These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "'I shall certainly be there.' "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the outside. a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, becomes even more simple." them?" the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "So I heard. You have him here?" "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue affection." beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "What then?" the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he know all about it," he snarled. distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an business." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "Never." "Where did you address your letters, then?" of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. derbies." "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "I answered that I had not. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Pray let us have it, for all that." settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "I am all attention, madam." pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "She showed me, as I told you she would." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is acquaintance?" superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if look dissatisfied." asked. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who McCarthy's innocence. "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging From what you have told me I think that it is possible that been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "It is possible." "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of to you." children over to America with him, so that I found myself without undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "How are you getting on?" aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and yourselves in at night?" some terrible trap for her."