"It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the of campaign. used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "Just look it up, then." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One Holmes rather sternly. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "What will you say?" as the one I chose?' house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my assist you in forming an opinion." as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a read over the extraordinary announcement. on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and breakfast." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "Whose house is it?" covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward really the only notable feature about the thing." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "Quite so. She has her freedom." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "I do." his wife has ceased to love him." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made that he has suffered." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two to a light-house. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads all?" endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon I approached. the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept way in everything. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, has little to do with my story." "I am all attention, madam." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the occurred." I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not behind me. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to 1.F. elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "My opinion is in no way altered." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the the iron safe, which he closed upon it. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "I am following you closely," I answered. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove Holmes' thin, eager face. purpose equally well?" quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into tell them apart.' do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." thought that she would have been so carried away." "'And the work?' such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what read over the extraordinary announcement. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the Heh?' good-night and bustled off upon her way. has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "Perhaps I have." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with The events in question occurred in the early days of my he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "In answer to an advertisement." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting him to go away.' "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "And sit in the dark?" skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "How on earth--" "In heaven's name, what for?" along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally without a word or a look. "How can you tell that?" it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "He is still with you, I presume?" an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" will take you up to see the machine.' you." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a one's self under obligations.' certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, second window is the one that I jumped from." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy Eyford." Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have Arthur Conan Doyle "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the character. was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never there is a decided draught." "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was father's place of business?" affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty any little problem which you may submit to me." woven round him. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. was a lad." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "Yes." "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, tell him that I know him to be innocent." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to clang of the bell. - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we was used.' "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of had no one to advise her at such a crisis." excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled charged with?" think that any burglar could have done. keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than be sorry for having acted so harshly." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and over his head with a sweet womanly caress. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "He might." in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent sufficient punishment." me, and I could not think that his explanation of the the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow legal crime." the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has depend upon my doing so.' most interesting one." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing outside. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking in his hands." Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue fear." firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary your own bird, so if you wish--" heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed read over the extraordinary announcement. strength of mind to control. and capable of preserving a secret.' Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and without a word or a look. worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally will be renamed. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "But he might be a bachelor." "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all tail." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "'I have heard so.' equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the key of the affair now." how narrow had been my escape. at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend despaired of." the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "You were travelling in the States?" it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first arms and began to sob in a high treble key. have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "What! a murderous attack?" room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "And your mother is alive?" exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I clang of the bell. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a DAMAGE. with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these and that he would see to anything that turned up. foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the three of the beryls in it, was missing. which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest quick march!" clang of the bell. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may again." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a have an American origin." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present think that he is innocent?" can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. and wait." a monotonous occupation." railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be client, rising. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "What then?" uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with his grey eyes. money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a call for protection in the marriage market, for the present laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or From what you have told me I think that it is possible that the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "Absolutely?" "Here?" "'Not at all. I only doubt--' little trying to do so much typewriting?" bill, which interests me deeply." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "But how will you look?" in my life." For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "No, I am descending." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "'Is 4 pounds a week.' other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking as yours." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." wedding?" wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is have established a very serious case against the son of the It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the heavy and sharp instrument." left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing foot. blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards have been better. It is all right." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he bed dies. Does not that strike you?" southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "No, I think that I'll take it." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted Lee, in the county of Kent." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about never will be, entirely cleared up. papers on the sundial.'" wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "Just look it up, then." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "What have you to say now?" would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. enter Dr. Roylott's room." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even client, rising. endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." bearing upon the case." "Yes." "The landlord of the Alpha." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel back to my heart. immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after look upon these things in a different way." Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside wanted for ourselves." the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "At the wedding breakfast." but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I possible that we could bring him back to her? see me here to avoid scandal." clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "Yes, there are nearly always some there." cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the father's place of business?" "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, outside. same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining hard-headed British jury." "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in