fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and despaired of." established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But should be so warm over such a trifle." careless servant girl?" look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body I held the little printed slip to the light. "The landlord of the Alpha." to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be society." "To the police?" "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see my special province." "Imitated." "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "But how did you gain them?" swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, him to be an active member of the medical profession." crime." 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted one's self under obligations.' "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I shall not find me ungrateful." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. nights." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his other means.' bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and point in the dark hollow of his hand. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." DISSOLVED. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "When did she vanish, then?" quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "'There is a drive, then?' story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are conclusions. through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Stoke Moran." both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "Imitated." dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Yes, only one." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or wedding?" from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "My photograph." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Why did you pick him?" against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Proceed, then." upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit occupations.' chance." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a at my remark. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." the side-table." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, off." which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "Who by?" "My dear Holmes!" "And how did you verify them?" charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "At half-wages, in fact." fat-encircled eyes. the very morning of the wedding." o'clock is it?" "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal three fields round his house, and there he would take his right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that jewels which you have stolen?' outbreak?" preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "It certainly sounds feasible." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem over here." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It important." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like nothing with him." "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to little trying to do so much typewriting?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting words came to my lips. not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him and put his glass in his pocket. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism Cross for the Continent." "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger other lovers by making love himself." folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking works. hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "Of what day?" "Precisely." uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you questionable one." result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and empty. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, indiscretion." of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "I cannot imagine." considering the formidable letters which were received by himself hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The province." said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and side. "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "On your arm?" to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready in darkness. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't name is different." "One of the highest in England." expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a narrative." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." and a shock of very red hair. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon wedding?" "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call vague figure huddled up in the darkness. the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. is worth.' to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it suddenly upon us." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a have been better. It is all right." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "I have my revolver," said I. gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose obstinate." Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' you, my dear young lady?' certainly not very gracious." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, soul! here is her carriage at the door." cost them two and thirty pounds." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his and no precautions can guard against." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "Always." not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for touch that coronet?' "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? laugh and put his lips to my ear. "Never." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled room. some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of front of the hall door has given its name to the place. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, matter over." unprofitable." Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he or other trace. But how on earth--" "Precisely." with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like of fine shops and stately business premises that they really step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave was it brought him the coronet? finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and bears upon the case?" "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is me where it went to?" have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of from you?" "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "But how?" lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of the so-precious time, but come!' tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" pressing in one house as in another. "'I have heard so.' "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about coat-tails." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "None." "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full chance at all." he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the burst out into a roar of laughter. Mrs. Toller serenely. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "VIOLET HUNTER." following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his fatally injured? the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they golden eyeglasses. "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several nonsense.' Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to ready to-morrow?' flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from there in twenty minutes." words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "Ten will be early enough." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am this man was intellectual?" just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "The Cedars?" perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of opportunities to fix the problem. Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose read it out to me." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "That is it on the dressing-table." "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his and laid it on the table. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. locked." two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "It is very kind of you." that he will be back before evening." soul! here is her carriage at the door." with frightened eyes at his accuser. naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other will he say when he returns?" never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, just ask you whether you had heard it.' results." "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and impression behind it as though a window had gently closed fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. me upon any point which I do not make clear." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else It may be so in this case, also." than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains conclusions. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco silent! Oh, he will be silent!' must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "It looks newer than the other things?" his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you him to go away.' twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "A client, then?" and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was that you saw all that I did." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out main points of my analysis." face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him been anything against him. He had for years been known as a delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind Watson," he said cordially. occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the confronted him. this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "Only as much as we can deduce." too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Serpentine Avenue. if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." how narrow had been my escape. "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Then what has happened to him?" river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." call you and give you the chance." can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much national property. I was determined that the law should have its here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away Lestrade of Scotland Yard." politicians who had been sent down from the North. is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the such attractions and accomplishments?' which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, purpose of examination. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that papers must be those that are destroyed.' By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped towards the blaze. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "But of what society?" fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who hands. just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my