say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. becomes even more simple." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss said he, "my real name is James Ryder." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "I think that I had better go, Holmes." Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand public press." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending writing, and yet I know it well." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. forecastle of an emigrant ship. my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "Game for a morning drive?" pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and II. "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" affection." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a garden below. attention." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and weighed down with some great anxiety. home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, situation." and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "You have it, sir, just as it happened." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from that I can to serve you." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for should be taken.' was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to had no one to advise her at such a crisis." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather strong reason behind." "'I am sure that I do not know.' "Pray be precise as to details," said he. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "Really! You surprise me." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of have got?" Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, you want, then?' turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' This is what he says: There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "'Certainly not. But why?' fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with of the way of danger. were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my Foundation the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "The knees of his trousers." "His face fell immediately. The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his conceal it?" "And I to find an enemy." "Nothing." "It came here." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, husband's writing, madam." "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. redistribution. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. correct than the official force." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow take the flies, but not before." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "This concluded the examination of the witness." gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "What do you mean?" dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, 'please.'" came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson at a side door. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. brain must have something in it." derbies." my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a there were one or two details which were new to me. But the business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. is worth.' to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. During two years I have had three consultations and one small other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, sufficient punishment." some water from a caraffe. "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." miles off. "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, goes." PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at the one as in the other." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to Holmes." panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, redistribution. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who breakfast and whispered something to her husband. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "Your French gold?" "'I am sure that I do not know.' must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which within hail.' passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would meant it for the best. ready to-morrow?' "What then?" time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the respectable self." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my read over the extraordinary announcement. about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm cigar and let me expound." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. the coronet at all injured?" similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "Ah!" "How many? I don't know." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. you want, then?' "And how did he make his money?" shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. to tackle the facts." he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Yes." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "I cannot think." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year annoyance, but no jest. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he "Indeed! Whose, then?" "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if only touch the interest." imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her leave you to your papers for a little." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "You are hungry," I remarked. other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, the one as in the other." performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for is so. I know all about McCarthy." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. once more on the important position which you have been fortunate dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' jewels which you have stolen?' be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "He might." than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "My own seal." we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been your bag." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend gigantic client. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. together. about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black everything which you would wish to know." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' Sutherland?" your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. asked. "The gentleman I describe." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "And why in hopes?" "'Oh, no.' When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to stepfather?" "'Very good.' There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. interested in these little problems, and since you are good a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the 'please.'" ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "'And the work?' national property. I was determined that the law should have its window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going himself to hunt down. fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in coroner's jury." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those digesting their breakfasts at home." "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the you in yours." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke and files of the old papers, following the future career of every occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "Oh, yes, easily." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that delighted to hear it," he said. admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he Leave Paddington by the 11:15." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover married her." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for place no limit on the sum I may draw." drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Deserted you?" "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess throat." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "When did she vanish, then?" "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the really the only notable feature about the thing." out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "How many? I don't know." stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard to change my dress. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did address. opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would nothing with him." address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed had died away into the silence from which it rose. lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook and have this put in the evening papers." "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through in his hands." appeared upon the scene." unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside your own bird, so if you wish--" collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, redistribution. Pope's Court. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very kindly on the shoulder. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, followed. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow envelope. "Ample." With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "'Then let me do so?' bedroom door." it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "Yes, only one." carried out of court." eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "Where, then, is my wife?" tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable so far?" fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and stood on the top of it. The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the McCarthy's innocence. nonsense.' "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four wedding?" And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "Will you bet, then?" was a loud and authoritative tap. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "On your arm?" no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "You know me, then?" "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a paper in the air. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open good for you to do.' handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and