"But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "What office?" "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to you want, then?' "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. whether it answered to the description of any of their "Then how many are there?" "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "You think so, too?" once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" despaired of." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "And now?" I asked. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own at once, for I have only half an hour." banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United little trying to do so much typewriting?" "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well do." threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "Where, then?" summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "Yes." "Yes, it was twisted." this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended to go into your room and bar your shutters?" the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened cheerful." of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a south, for the country is more deserted there." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "Precisely." future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you bare slabs of marble. the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong strong reason behind." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, which it had come upon my father." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or was a lad." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "No legal papers or certificates?" I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "'I am sure if I had known--' "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "Then you may be so with me." "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "A greater distance to travel." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. tear off another piece?' and it need not interfere very much with one's other from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for this Miss Turner." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. hurried by. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got and have this put in the evening papers." the bottom.' description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet and looked back. 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "I know where it is." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about business." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her whatever might befall. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "Whose house is it?" pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if events than those which have happened in my own family." he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. investigation." going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas Project Gutenberg-tm works. "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, that routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for pierced for earrings?" letters?" silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of formed some opinion?" "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "To an end?" goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. once more for Briony Lodge. "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and the side-table." "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "His face fell immediately. pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and appeal." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "'Yes.' blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the not fit the lock." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The despaired of." "Witness: I must still refuse. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." paper in the air. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. Pope's Court. "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident fact, we may call it conclusive." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "But I have heard all that you have heard." "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "He said that you could solve anything." present." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "No. His orders were to stay in the house." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "What can you not understand?" flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in DISSOLVED. age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated shadow pass over his face as I spoke. until night should bring an explanation. carried out of court." have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "I would give my fortune to have them back." I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "Deserted you?" "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and I leave." you understand?" God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "And did you observe any change in her then?" Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his later, upon the night of May 2nd." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was from the brougham. one which it was hard to resist. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it speckled band?" when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of on in his house." which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so that I can to serve you." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished narrative." "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very enter into my head. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "I cannot imagine." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I opportunities to fix the problem. use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches the warnings." yet." "Were they all fastened this morning?" all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "It looks newer than the other things?" age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "Just look it up, then." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "Was your sister dressed?" and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for this poor creature." room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, one which it was hard to resist. through." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring the stones. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with speckled band?" McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the down. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from him and tried to hold him back. obstinate." "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "I came to find a friend." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King most interesting one." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for flock.' The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture Young McCarthy must be got off, however." the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was there when the Rucastles went away." "And who is her maid?" "The best possible." "'Entirely.' I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "Yes." investigation." "What do you make of that, Watson?" professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "The best possible." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "You'll never persuade me to believe that." rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence suddenly upon us." do you make of it all?" the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' them?" impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project the salesman. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I Sutherland. these bleak autumnal evenings." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I chill to my heart. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "It is half-past ten now." of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at deduce something from that?" eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "No bad?" gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "No, but the enclosure is." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "And what then?" matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "'Not at all. I only doubt--' observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of was not a bird to be seen there. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly that I may have something better before very many minutes are had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared returning from some small jollification and was making his way Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to was the fact that his father should, according to his account, conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no this poor creature." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for could not account in any way for the presence of the missing with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the inquest, and which are worth considering." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "Well, some hundreds of times." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "The Cedars?" rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "Pray do so." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon reach." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that