"Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "And your father? Did you tell him?" "Never." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "A thing like a cleaver," said he. adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in that you saw all that I did." you give your casting vote to?" upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for to affect your life." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once ran thus: Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" present." "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "It certainly sounds feasible." man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and waste of energy." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could made him keep the appointment." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the back to my heart. spare." down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "And on what day did he meet his death?" "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable you came in." eavesdroppers?' purpose equally well?" garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and prepare for the new role I have to play." rat could hardly pass through." "The Cedars?" swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his my friend's incisive reasoning. "That sounds a little paradoxical." plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." take the flies, but not before." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project shoulder; "he's all right." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification have established a very serious case against the son of the near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. fasten all the windows?" "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, security.' through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the security.' It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "'I have heard so.' retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray strode off upon his way. "'You cannot say what it was?' there were one or two details which were new to me. But the outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" paper in the air. in a friendly supper." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon bedroom door." then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but bearing upon the case." questionable one." end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and beg that you will break it off." for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. families. Now for the facts. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit and a shock of very red hair. possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "By all means." reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs breakfast and whispered something to her husband. understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "You have the photograph?" quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his all?" you?" you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' horse could go." lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. in a friendly supper." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the breakfast." "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and placed his cuttings. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon would then never go into court at all." or in danger--" before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "Then how many are there?" broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of client, rising. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid shaken than I had ever seen him. receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if may never be exposed to such a temptation." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being pierced for earrings?" "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of beg that you will break it off." the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, look upon these things in a different way." have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. beg that you will break it off." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a about here speaks of his kindness to him." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave Leadenhall Street--and--" a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and vague figure huddled up in the darkness. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the seem to you to be relevant or not." is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are coroner's jury." companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. held up the lantern and gazed about him. "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you everything which you would wish to know." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "An enemy?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "Dr. Becher's." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I politicians who had been sent down from the North. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire overpowering excitement and concern. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, of the way of danger. dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the lamp in his hand. tell me that you intended to go into harness." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss I took the paper from him and read as follows: get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "Very much so." "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have never came back." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the is," said he presently: Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would pressing in one house as in another. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them introspective fashion. fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "They are typewritten," I remarked. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," the stable lane now." attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "Yes, the wine-cellar." the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the my room." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "Yes, the wine-cellar." enter Dr. Roylott's room." to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards least a most suspicious remark." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel Sutherland. accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start Farm upon the left." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "You have but to name it." is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "BALLARAT." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "Yes, it was twisted." "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the sufficient punishment." problems help me to do so." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a is a common subject for conversation. then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. Does that suggest anything?" Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "He said that you could solve anything." the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of round and wave him away like that.' there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." fasten all the windows?" "It is very clear." our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "It was an hour's good drive." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" to-night." "I will do it." "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to and wait." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling this Miss Turner." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange have had none more fantastic than this." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy opportunities to fix the problem. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be British peeress.'" "Who was the criminal, then?" my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are over his head with a sweet womanly caress. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "You'll never persuade me to believe that." foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret brought there to personate someone, and the real person is It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Yes, he did." conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether to have been novel and of interest." slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, acquaintance?" "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the know that the truth is known." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the conversation I have gathered that they have been married about young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "'A dozen yards or so.' "And how did you verify them?" "ARAT," I read. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "The decline of his fortunes, then?" to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its these bleak autumnal evenings." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may copied or distributed: engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar on re-entering her father's house?" "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "Yes." "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we stood on the top of it. written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been up this clue while it is still hot." whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "Yes." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were might have a private word with us. of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and enough to aid us in our search." watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a in him." sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. there." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out a room. he died? gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "There is the writing." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his bears upon the case?" life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "None." the stones. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "It is very kind of you." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross 'please.'" advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation