"Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which away in different directions, and I went off to make my own stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We chambers. parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there weapon." the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." I shall communicate with you." rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of mystery." looking up at the numbers of the houses." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." think that he is innocent?" cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. in. flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "Yes, only one." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "'And what are they worth?' I asked. all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the he bowed and left the room without another word. over his head with a sweet womanly caress. waste of energy." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer you." from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. meanly of me." carpenter." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced morning." the general public were present, then?" opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the three fields round his house, and there he would take his uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be and the whole place is in a blaze." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "'As governess?' "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on wife's character?" give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have neither fascinating nor artistic." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been was used.' Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "I have my revolver," said I. business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left feature." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be chill to my heart. "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate once more to my work. Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a together. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "What?" may have an influence upon European history." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "And you thought he was pulled back?" "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "The rest you will leave in our hands." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came already referred to. "No, I think that I'll take it." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" views." "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several written. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of breakfast and whispered something to her husband. he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely have I gained?" between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "The gentleman I describe." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Game for a morning drive?" With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. what I may call a really hard day's work." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off "How are you getting on?" civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some house for five minutes.' mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "He is dead," cried several voices. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "I have solved it." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as Clair, of Lee." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as simple cases which are so extremely difficult." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So children over to America with him, so that I found myself without long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average gives a meaning to it." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To noise which awoke you from your sleep?" made him keep the appointment." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "I have my revolver," said I. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "And who is her maid?" of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "One horse?" interjected Holmes. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite or in danger--" have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "I will do it." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely some water from a caraffe. business in the City. She little knew what. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "And you don't know his address?" its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a sooner or later she must fall a victim. and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than from you?" c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "Tired-looking or fresh?" Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to pierced for earrings?" mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of room. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his too. beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "Dark enough and sinister enough." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "But what harm can there be in that?" the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "Yes, only one." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of call the police, let the police find what they can.' been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "No?" "You have a clue?" been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting narrative." that I may have something better before very many minutes are travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who yet." "I have solved it." cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "Yes, there are nearly always some there." back to my heart. "'I have heard so.' was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a will be renamed. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. gigantic client. "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, investigation." Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place have had none more fantastic than this." "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." from you?" doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "'What then?' I asked. I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to extraordinary contortions. was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and was a lad." way: that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER tassel actually lying upon the pillow. would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "Texas, I think." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "That is also quite modern," said the lady. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether straightened it out again. out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed the morning and make my own way in the world.' see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. will take you up to see the machine.' and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. you." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is done what I asked you, Jones?" your only hope of safety." "Ah!" varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the and all of them with the keenest interest. "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "Well." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would writers could invent nothing more crude." coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are address. Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" tied." "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "I never have." "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see Holmes' face clouded over. handed it to him. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. business." drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "What do you make of that, Watson?" at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door one which it was hard to resist. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the examine." Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced extraordinary contortions. to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "And that is--" about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been have accepted such a situation. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the quite distinctive." would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, and looked back. suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in down. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to should be so warm over such a trifle." "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "She told me to ask you." general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, discontent upon his features. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had and all of them with the keenest interest. "I say that I have solved it." yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Yes, sir." lamp. been with you?" "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! The police have openly confessed that they can at present make wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "It was an hour's good drive." "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "'And what are they worth?' I asked. frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too know all about it," he snarled. quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which like gravel from a pit.' speckled band?" more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "I should be immensely obliged to you." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, was a loud and authoritative tap. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "But you have hopes?" a monotonous occupation." conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his "I cannot tell." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of McCarthy's innocence. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon