nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "What can you not understand?" he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into like that before?" drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. tension within him. harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, been able to understand it, in a very few words. retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never of them has the shutters up.' "The Coroner: What do you mean? fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who "And the murderer?" unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property enough to aid us in our search." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "And now?" I asked. flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his straightened it out again. "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable little adventures." wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from noting anything else of interest. Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled examination of the premises, but without finding anything which strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most with you alone." companion. deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "Tired-looking or fresh?" To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "I should wish to." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or himself in a perplexing position. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "Why did you pick him?" "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "'Yes.' if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "He is still with you, I presume?" Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "'What are you doing there?' he asked. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he compunction about shooting them down." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without interested in these little problems, and since you are good furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then once more to my work. exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "And help." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. yet." long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "What will you say?" The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his heavily into it. window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered you." "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "I shall most certainly do so." "And from a noble client?" minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, looking up at the numbers of the houses." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "I cannot think." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "But I am all in the dark." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, upon a handsome competence. order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "'Ten to two.' during the last few years, and there are many noble families to informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William the coronet at all injured?" "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, what I may call a really hard day's work." more terrible than the truth. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own that he will be back before evening." permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary how narrow had been my escape. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." chair. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with married her." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for later, upon the night of May 2nd." The events in question occurred in the early days of my reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left examine." tied." from the brougham. what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "Yes, all." see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "That is also quite modern," said the lady. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I Eyford at 11:15.' the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." he. yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet in the hope of finding them." "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then woman." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "An enemy?" black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start to have been novel and of interest." formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few electronic works as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** Lee, in the county of Kent." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "My dear Holmes!" "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind I shall continue with my miserable story. skylight. and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "No." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "It was an hour's good drive." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill have an American origin." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge in the dead of the night?' rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat observed. "Tired-looking or fresh?" Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are the room while you explain this matter?" a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "I cannot as yet see any connection." who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was colonel looking down at me. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever works. day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in is so. I know all about McCarthy." stood on the top of it. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to posted to-day." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over furiously. investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "How do you know, then?" impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "Entirely." himself to hunt down. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Yes." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "In San Francisco, a year ago." direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day been anything against him. He had for years been known as a roused himself from his reverie. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, have got?" character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "'No, I know no one in these parts.' all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple Serpentine Avenue. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "But what harm can there be in that?" interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of true." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "How did you trace it, then?" Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "I will not look." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Munro.' eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week you." his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are forbidden door. you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet away into the river." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "Get out!" said he. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, daring than any effort of the imagination." "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "9th. McCauley cleared. dead, shall be safe with us." "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been weighed down with some great anxiety. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words from you?" "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "You heard nothing yourself last night?" deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "What can you not understand?" tightly behind him. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "That is it on the dressing-table." "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." events, Mr. Windibank!" the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "Pray do so." instincts rose up against that laugh. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "No good news?" sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It advice." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new letters?" "Stolen, then." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "Yes." terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "You did not overhear what they said?" much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting down. "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "Ah!" last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "Yes." "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "No legal papers or certificates?" whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "'How far from the body?' stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "On your arm?" "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is acted in my house last night?" Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." jewels which you have stolen?' of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property 1.F. lumber-room." window when the police appeared." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' matter." Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in some place of shelter and let the county police know what has came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "But how?" of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his subject to the trademark license, especially commercial at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce