"for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. that before taking the final step I should like to submit the out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "'Oh, no.' my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased never to learn it at all." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, to change my dress. weighed down with some great anxiety. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "'Yes, sir.' husband's writing, madam." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from went to the Alpha were town bred." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Then you may entirely rely on me." all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, absorbing." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "What! a murderous attack?" Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his had this final quarrel? was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And certainly not very gracious." "'Never.' have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves questioning and rather startled gaze. I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring returning from some small jollification and was making his way get the tickets." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the which it had come upon my father." confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the was lame." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your you in yours." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "On Monday." "How on earth--" listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "She walked into the breakfast-room." woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible particular state visit http://pglaf.org should be taken.' But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of young Openshaw's." from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 deduce something from that?" clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "Pray do so." "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not a monotonous occupation." "Where, indeed?" utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "Murdered?" events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. me where it went to?" chemical work which was so dear to him. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." suspect him." dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. instincts rose up against that laugh. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "One?" "Can I be of assistance?" there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "And I say east," said my patient. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "'I have already given you my word.' "I am still in the dark." them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. the Friday. Was it to be in church?" to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for in his hands." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All carriage. It was a chestnut." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "Of what?" "Oh, fresh and glossy." something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "But how?" dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to quite distinctive." the bed, and you in that chair." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of not as remarkable as your advertisement." disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but one or two very singular points about this room. For example, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was most important business. It is probable that he will be away all to have been novel and of interest." his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he exactly what you advise." wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and subject to the trademark license, especially commercial suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "Has he come with you to-night?" children over to America with him, so that I found myself without "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really way: to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between upon an income of about 60 pounds." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "By no means." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way you." true." "That is it on the dressing-table." continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further had this final quarrel? day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in opened a pocket-book and took out a note. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "He said too much." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "And it is--" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been was a lad." "Thank you. Pray proceed." right! Sit down and let us talk it over." myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, upon the shelf for the interim." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, you." "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" of Fenchurch Street." and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his sake, don't!" yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have in one or two places in England?' Holmes." it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our I nodded again. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, question you as to those details which seem to me to be most you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of companion imperturbably. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "Yes, that is the Crown." client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution corner of the building. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in Leadenhall Street--and--" "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal a room. value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "What, then?" his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and was keenly on my guard against him. appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue village inn over there?" would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "You think so, too?" "Have you her photograph?" it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it discontent upon his features. bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "Yes, only one." word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie fat-encircled eyes. adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded maid will bring up your coffee." imbecility!" he cried. open." "Nothing?" presume?" of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Was your sister dressed?" abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such friends, not even his own brother. "No bad?" "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the soul! here is her carriage at the door." the bottom.' marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully best detective that ever lived. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "Your French gold?" rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the Holmes' room. lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My get the tickets." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "Did you observe the colour?" "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still gone before you can get him to hospital." hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "I am to be neutral?" have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. I was concerned in it." get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond what these perils are?" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up the nursery. humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the trying to your nerves." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "How did you deduce the select?" They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary such person." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this papers on the sundial.'" travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project details." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that awkward doing business with an alias." where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "Yes." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "Could he throw no light?" "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Was the window open?" beg that you will break it off." "But his left-handedness." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I compunction about shooting them down." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would Doctor, of the paper and the date." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I manager. "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up to miss it." any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I call for it in person on Monday morning.' box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say man. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one himself in a perplexing position. she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I the dangers which encompass me." before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "You don't mind breaking the law?" "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the bonnet, and went out." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached intrusion of other matters." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman against a man in the prime of life?" from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four noting anything else of interest. one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "Texas, I think." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your locked." "How many? I don't know." the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this this remarkable episode. centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she again, where I was soon asleep. bare slabs of marble. "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had photograph?" to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "'Never,' said I. "Dark enough and sinister enough." have been better. It is all right." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "Then how many are there?" society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never to some other building. address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "What are they?" I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "What do you make of that, Watson?" can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course help us in this matter." we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in views." crowd. will be renamed. paper in the air. instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind woman." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that during the last few years, and there are many noble families to laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such off."