I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in on in his house." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they retorted upon me, and I on you." effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread up this clue while it is still hot." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest hour." hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "Tired-looking or fresh?" "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and weigh very heavily upon my conscience." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "We must have a cab." possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid it. to where he stood hid behind the curtain. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was definite end. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you never will be, entirely cleared up. following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the himself. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all formed some opinion?" key of the affair now." carried out of court." stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "I guessed as much." opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some your co-operation." Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the examine." my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "You horrify me." jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell is worth.' even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the manager. voice. mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk nonsense.' which are rolled in Rotterdam." and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not round and wave him away like that.' "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud jewels which you have stolen?' "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the my friend's incisive reasoning. to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the ready to-morrow?' said I. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was see me here to avoid scandal." these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "Game for a morning drive?" to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to subject to the trademark license, especially commercial Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "In answer to an advertisement." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel IS although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and This is what he says: think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in to tackle the facts." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "But not more so than I to find you." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the it? Did I buy the geese off you?" and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "Yes, but only for you and me." greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink have an American origin." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "No?" woman." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "My opinion is in no way altered." in the dead of the night?' prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was crime." and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've take the flies, but not before." and shall probably return to London by the evening train." I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they his forehead." "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened stalked out of the room. "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." tightly behind him. security.' "Oh, yes, easily." his wife has ceased to love him." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she heavy and sharp instrument." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious to go into your room and bar your shutters?" could not have written that. It is the German who is so trying to your nerves." business?" mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, strength in the others." had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "10th. John Swain cleared. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely written. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "Where is it, then?" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "You think so, too?" Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "The murder was done with it." sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use your only hope of safety." drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "How do you know, then?" "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried followed. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "'Yes, I promise.' the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his developed." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "No." crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "No." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "It was." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "And what did you learn from him?" 1.E.9. brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & forecastle of an emigrant ship. "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon could not have written that. It is the German who is so places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Yes." thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he man. I know him from the photograph." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "'I am sure if I had known--' from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you bearing upon the case." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "What are they?" That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "Have you her photograph?" With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily that before taking the final step I should like to submit the never will be, entirely cleared up. who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "He might." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "Why, what do you mean?" my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" is a common subject for conversation. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Then what has happened to him?" already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The skylight. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside ready to-morrow?' Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary think that he is innocent?" sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "Nothing." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "And I say east," said my patient. of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there suddenly upon us." fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl shoulder; "he's all right." "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "The King of Scandinavia." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "Yes, sir." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "Was she in good spirits?" forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open grasp, he hurried from the room. name is different." had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "What can you not understand?" and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." drove away. long narrative. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant have I gained?" against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I room had already been engaged for us. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some of Fenchurch Street." see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was a few minutes he said that it would be all right. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I Miss Holder?" set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Here?" it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had only touch the interest." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few made his money." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who crowd. that I am arrested." cigar and let me expound." loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the will be renamed. maid will bring up your coffee." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, again on its way. Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged gone. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day indiscretion." than was visible to me." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer Holmes' thin, eager face. "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Ah!" "It was an hour's good drive." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "No, I am descending." cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I quick march!" in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive least a most suspicious remark." noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "How many? I don't know." very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" examine." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all breakfast." 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so For additional contact information: helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's you for a few hours?" "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing that third from London." in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, more solid." hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "Where did he live, then?" to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My Holmes rather sternly. Edgeware Road. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers him, that man would not have given me such complete information of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "What will you do, then?" usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from my friend's incisive reasoning. France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." that propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." them present such singular features as the strange train of your only hope of safety." "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the DAMAGE. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly this remarkable episode. One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "'What then?' I asked. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. some terrible trap for her." indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for it." 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting out of this horrible affair." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "How did that help you?" Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an