"'In my own bureau.' "And did you observe any change in her then?" endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "But of what society?" with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "The decline of his fortunes, then?" folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are me. You must get home instantly and act." would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, posted to-day." morning." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the believe that I should never have any practice at all. engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" absorbing." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "Only as much as we can deduce." "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some narrative." remarked. than to us. "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He affection." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "By no means." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." the devil!" Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage in his hands." shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my charged with?" unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His relation between them, and what the object of his repeated Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "It is true that I have been generally successful." "And on what day did he meet his death?" Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "The Cedars?" off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my simple cases which are so extremely difficult." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "Precisely." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat imbecility!" he cried. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See comes from the middle window." "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "And how?" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that them, and came down just as you departed. lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "Why serious?" back to my heart. interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "'You doubt its value?' he asked. suddenly upon us." "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his you found me to-night--and running through the front room she incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are man. I know him from the photograph." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "A greater distance to travel." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "But his left-handedness." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady whereabouts. against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." to tackle the facts." clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room open." offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose do you make of it all?" another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "She told me to ask you." he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had several quiet little villages up there." impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but which we had just quitted. "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" helping a boy to put up the shutters. is a common subject for conversation. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become our word." "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the the general public were present, then?" finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, will take you up to see the machine.' for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You beg that you will break it off." Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "No." long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to think that any burglar could have done. him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in Farm upon the left." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than fled together." found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all "You were travelling in the States?" "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my and wait." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest obstinate." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never such attractions and accomplishments?' prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "The decline of his fortunes, then?" his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "Oh, the cause is excellent!" me where it went to?" dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "Did your wife hear all this?" surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He heavy and sharp instrument." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture jewels which you have stolen?' far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the fact, we may call it conclusive." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope drove away. mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, copied or distributed: suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may this poor creature." complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the disturbance in my wife." mystery!" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted closely." "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Entirely." the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. you in yours." bill, which interests me deeply." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they than to us. My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my once more on the important position which you have been fortunate like that before?" residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a families. Now for the facts. may have an influence upon European history." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, the King without delay." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "'A dozen yards or so.' inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "How did he come?" everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began wedding?" "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be minor matters until to-morrow." "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "Did your wife hear all this?" blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of London for the present?" "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine and effective." of." have not had my rubber." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste father's place of business?" up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Then I do not see the point." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "'Entirely.' most important business. It is probable that he will be away all come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and the stones. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and interests were the same as his." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "How are you getting on?" matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or was the fact that his father should, according to his account, had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went status with the IRS. "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "Not social, then?" protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to completely overtopped every other consideration that we both been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study of the one which your family is now devouring." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "And you don't know his address?" Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her figure." would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "Nothing." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we tension within him. hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned narrative." wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." again before evening." against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray held up the lantern and gazed about him. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "Very murderous indeed." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "I cannot imagine." journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I the bed, and you in that chair." attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was colour had been driven from his face. fish-monger and a tide-waiter." the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary passage and a tap at the door. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no But Holmes shook his head gravely. "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "You are hungry," I remarked. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a shaken than I had ever seen him. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "'Never.' "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The too. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. mystery may be cleared along those lines." his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of http://www.gutenberg.net It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He desk. friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit my room." "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "Pray do so." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, which it had come upon my father." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "Yes, I have one waiting." journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Then he might have called to you?" was already answered. hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, in this way: drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to chamber." revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "Thank you. And your address?" the side-table." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the unprecedented a position." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "What then?" it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "Was there a secret marriage?" the child." matter." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his hereditary King of Bohemia." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "Have you her photograph?" central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "And what then?" resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the