this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your indiscretion." resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very if she died from some sudden fright." wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Come in!" said he. "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the get the tickets." said he. "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "No, but the enclosure is." question. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the approach us with offers to donate. you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that washing it down with a long draught of water. beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; I was concerned in it." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. your troubles." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some Leadenhall Street--and--" deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I little trying to do so much typewriting?" way: delirious. "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "And what did you learn from him?" including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any dramatic, in fact." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of national property. I was determined that the law should have its brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are kindly on the shoulder. deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a in darkness. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "That is possible." could gather together that I was able to avert another public good for you to do.' Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the newspaper selections." through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "This photograph!" it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Yes." "He might." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "I should wish to." charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Why serious?" drove away. face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and remarked. where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the of the way of danger. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the to have that photograph." "But you were on a friendly footing?" handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "In San Francisco, a year ago." of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the weary and pale-looking. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "'Oh, no.' lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged question," said Holmes, smiling. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. key of the affair now." Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "I think that it is very probable." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or overpowering excitement and concern. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours the general public were present, then?" "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and Does that suggest anything?" follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took your sleep?' Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but But Holmes shook his head gravely. she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and a good hundred miles off by now." over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot Pope's Court. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and least a most suspicious remark." "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, British peeress.'" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "Why did you pick him?" the driver. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Yes, that is the Crown." he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "And why?" initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I I shall communicate with you." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was humiliation." "Entirely." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "But it has twice been burgled." and no precautions can guard against." know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with sufficient punishment." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "My photograph." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the three fields round his house, and there he would take his dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with here and I will read it to you: is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the Countess of Morcar's?" how narrow had been my escape. hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if it means?" undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your appeal." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of in. Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I awkward doing business with an alias." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Very truly yours, revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave despair." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he Doctor, of the paper and the date." "Yes." served to weaken the effect. "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "'Oh, no.' He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham get her out of the way." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just knowledge of the world." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there criminal. We have already had experience of such." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the Street. upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my laugh and put his lips to my ear. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a is now desirous of getting those letters back." was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "Upon what point?" gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the their singular warning or token before them when starting upon annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have me, and I could not think that his explanation of the smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was are, I think, all that we need." upon a handsome competence. The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "And it is--" grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for the armchair which I pushed forward for him. rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." as the one I chose?' consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." his huge brown hands. "'It is locked up,' I answered. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "Bought." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the in the hope of finding them." over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "No." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to retorted upon me, and I on you." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as triumphant cloud from his cigarette. street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "What have you to say now?" glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the as he folded up the epistle. convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford and files of the old papers, following the future career of every part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Married! When?" quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might should be taken.' "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that once more for Briony Lodge. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project through." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "'As governess?' to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I one which it was hard to resist. and it need not interfere very much with one's other the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst sentimental considerations in the background which would induce deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of place no limit on the sum I may draw." "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is outside. to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "The knees of his trousers." most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her digesting their breakfasts at home." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced that I am arrested." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "It was." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any that?' "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached noting anything else of interest. 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a instincts rose up against that laugh. "Have you her photograph?" way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "I will get her to show me." however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "Stoke Moran?" said he. we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, did not hear it also.' "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a generous with you in money matters.' "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "It came here." the warnings." "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. never to learn it at all." did not hear it also.' man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit already been minutely examined." "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "'Is purely nominal.' "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been it." age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "I have seen the police." of campaign. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very do.' hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "Perfectly so." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "Oh, yes, easily." "I should wish to." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it away in different directions, and I went off to make my own father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing his fortune, and I went back to pa. "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the away in different directions, and I went off to make my own so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the me where it went to?" sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may assist you in forming an opinion." have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "'And what salary do you ask?' slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers.