whether it answered to the description of any of their stood on the top of it. such attractions and accomplishments?' "'I am sure if I had known--' despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. has little to do with my story." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, in a very precise fashion." "'Yes, sir.' "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." breakfast and whispered something to her husband. just ask you whether you had heard it.' day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "Certainly." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital residence of the great financier. cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the fishes. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." Watson," he said cordially. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to three of the beryls in it, was missing. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the villagers almost as much as their master. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Frequently." really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "He slept on the premises." story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "It is very kind of you." He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "Yes." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the hurried by. his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the orange pips. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of father's place of business?" "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in down from London to inquire more deeply into it." copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys evidence," I remarked. "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner to-night's adventure." in darkness. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would populous neighbourhood." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per paper in the air. hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "And you don't know his address?" the coronet in his hand?" clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a Surrey." She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for eat it." "Yes, I have one waiting." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is at once, for I have only half an hour." quite distinctive." lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a stalked out of the room. is worth.' "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the washing it down with a long draught of water. face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "'You cannot say what it was?' down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "Yes." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any instituted." it." placed his cuttings. day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "And Irene Adler?" to have that photograph." from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "'Yes, sir.' partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making stepfather?" friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "Dark enough and sinister enough." shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "A client, then?" ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter some mystery and the punishment of some crime." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell which our visitor detailed to us. the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "He said that you could solve anything." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly "Ah, but I was recommended to you." desk. equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "'Is purely nominal.' "I cannot tell." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "Bought." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little she to prove their authenticity?" "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" directors, with the result that you have seen." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over http://www.gutenberg.net is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll fishes. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by of them has the shutters up.' "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "'In my own bureau.' arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have felt the room to be a little close.' destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your bed dies. Does not that strike you?" at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "Absolutely?" mystery may be cleared along those lines." sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has shall not find me ungrateful." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "Well?" perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "Where, then?" fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "'About the same.' letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "I do." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had enter Dr. Roylott's room." "If so, much may have happened between." a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of noble correspondent could be. furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it pity, because in other respects you would really have done very that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from and inquire as to the address." upon an income of about 60 pounds." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "No." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." interests were the same as his." "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you garden below. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon furiously. go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be his forehead." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was orange pips. "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "Texas, I think." "By no means." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I during that time.' I approached. ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his cost them two and thirty pounds." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had of the efforts of the United States government and of the better not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "Then you may entirely rely on me." read it out to me." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. neither fascinating nor artistic." broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" key turn in the lock." said Mr. Holder. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by had picked up in the wood. own family. mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. to Leatherhead. on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "Certainly." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at unprecedented a position." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "And who is her maid?" is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "What, then, did Peterson do?" held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, be there in time for your coming." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "You know me, then?" closing the door. the best of training." placed his cuttings. cause to be." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a me. You must get home instantly and act." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was absolutely follow my advice in every respect." fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some bears upon the case?" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was are windows in it, of course?" "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See and shall probably return to London by the evening train." will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to without success. At last the little money which I had saved began a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the young Openshaw's." It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, corner of the building. "We have tried and failed." headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Yes." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of neither fascinating nor artistic." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "Perfectly so." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey undoubtedly my uncle's." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a "I would give my fortune to have them back." "My stepfather's business papers." You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since the tragedy. approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "He is dead," cried several voices. "That is not always so easy." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "What, then, did Peterson do?" purpose of examination. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly matter." people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't mystery!" thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. the Red-headed League." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "I say that I have solved it." to his chemical studies. the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I floor. of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" here." "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've thin, with a long, sharp nose?" vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to handed it to him. broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For seven miles from Eyford Station.' Holmes' thin, eager face. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere Pope's Court. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could them, and came down just as you departed. wanted for ourselves." left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small on in his house." "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of fashion which was peculiar to him. endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" retorted upon me, and I on you." beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with spare." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "It is very clear." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "If I can be of use." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and recover the gem." against a man in the prime of life?" "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted before the coroner and the police-court." his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at