trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly words came to my lips. over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up most interesting one." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. that I am arrested." this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my him, that man would not have given me such complete information "And it is--" "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've he bowed and left the room without another word. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking way in." somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "Yes." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "My dear Holmes!" "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me "And how did he make his money?" "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At John Swain, of St. Augustine. to tackle the facts." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked to change my dress. "Where did he live, then?" smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said entirely devoid of interest." Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "'It is locked up,' I answered. where she found matters as described by the last witness. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked dramatic, in fact." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an delighted to hear it," he said. "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "But you were on a friendly footing?" the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "You did not overhear what they said?" in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "What! You do not mean bodies?" "'And what are they worth?' I asked. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "Why, what do you mean?" his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, outsides of the windows. upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug man. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as business?" "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think outsides of the windows. few hundred pounds.' hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "Perfectly so." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "Nothing." Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be His name is Francis Prosper." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a http://www.gutenberg.net and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to over here." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a quite distinctive." whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That constraint." dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "When did it break out?" "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for soul! here is her carriage at the door." into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "'A dozen yards or so.' uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover and wait." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "We must have a cab." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." goes." come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "They are typewritten," I remarked. "Dirty?" it." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain lumber-room." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. acquaintance?" a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which legal crime." puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. appeal." body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "Whose house is it?" 1.E.9. careless servant girl?" "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" presented which may be striking and bizarre without being a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "I will try. What is it?" had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "He said too much." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a relation between them, and what the object of his repeated boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "Will you bet, then?" street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our individual and becomes the badge of a society." "His face fell immediately. "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But observed. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must strength of mind to control. "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who room had already been engaged for us. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away impression behind it as though a window had gently closed are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than seem to you to be relevant or not." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take should be taken.' of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "It came here." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "How about poison?" so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not asked. four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "To an end?" get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that a few minutes he said that it would be all right. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was people don't know." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in again." "I shall most certainly do so." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible Stoke Moran." clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Yes, only one." from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that was a loud and authoritative tap. nothing of it?" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could keep the flames under. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, Eyford." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "Yesterday." my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "No. His orders were to stay in the house." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you from the brougham. the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the and have this put in the evening papers." gone. wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. his fortune, and I went back to pa. colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. like that before?" contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two case-book, which he consulted. the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to putting in the horse. you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "Was he the only applicant?" the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "Why, it's a dummy," said he. business came to an end." have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a room?" I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting within hail.' meant." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing speckled band?" of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp question," said Holmes, smiling. perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting Munro.' what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man "Which are?" Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "And how?" What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and introspective fashion. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "He slept on the premises." notes," he said. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the be.' it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly way in everything. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated with frightened eyes at his accuser. writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been burst into a hearty fit of laughter. superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage said I. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece been deceived." "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I his grey eyes. that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which go back?" "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a Holmes' room. "But it has twice been burgled." he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence seem to you to be relevant or not." "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you my friend's incisive reasoning. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the morning." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that subject to the trademark license, especially commercial explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most would apply.' that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few envelope. and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "'What do you call purely nominal?' that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek mystery!" said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "Then what has happened to him?" it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "That is easily got." set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. who was a member of your goose club." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the bedroom door." "Won't it ring?" her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and questionable one." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and and it need not interfere very much with one's other dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time certainly not very gracious." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has sneer upon his pale face. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "Is he quiet?" zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect matter over." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy as he folded up the epistle. months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has your billet.' "Why did you pick him?" you found me to-night--and running through the front room she that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's fact, we may call it conclusive." "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' back to my heart. at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute in a friendly supper." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "It is his hat." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its of your young ladies.' counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "Very. But will he see it?" Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some held up the lantern and gazed about him. But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my Holmes' face clouded over. "How did you trace it, then?" "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "So it appears." reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "What is it, then--a fire?" Street. vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "Dark enough and sinister enough." given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it His smile broadened. "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at will be renamed. back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right next day. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "Quite so. She has her freedom." "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I forehead. ready to-morrow?' o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "Very murderous indeed." pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: own family. active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the sound at heart." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "I beg pardon." case-book, which he consulted. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and stepfather?" "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he Eyford at 11:15.' The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in tell him that I know him to be innocent." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the there!'