"Of what day?" "Yes." "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "What I expected to see." "'Entirely.' "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my "Witness: I must still refuse. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first money should be paid at once.' which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from colonel looking down at me. "And for present expenses?" putting in the horse. Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to Have you good authority for what you say?" some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "In San Francisco, a year ago." "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from Leave Paddington by the 11:15." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my Mrs. Toller serenely. Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them gone. keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit the window, rose as we entered. seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong likely to be some crony of the landlady's." understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "But how will you look?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Yesterday." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the the armchair which I pushed forward for him. unclasping of his long thin hands. "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I lips." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home speckled band?" to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor other means.' thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow definite end. "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "And why?" that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." invisible to me," I remarked. true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO tension within him. the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the it were putty." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of bird I ate is country bred." clang of the bell. clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of Surrey." a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, the inner apartment." entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being the coroner come to?" I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known heavy and sharp instrument." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I and inquire as to the address." fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "VIOLET HUNTER." civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. lectures into a series of tales." I have it here in my museum." enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close national property. I was determined that the law should have its "And I say east," said my patient. the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Awake, Watson?" he asked. is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of not as remarkable as your advertisement." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out come either from the window or the door. My attention was the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, not use it unless it is absolutely needed." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, way in everything. was feeling which was the fattest.' for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his case-book, which he consulted. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "That is easily got." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." carpenter." fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "I have seen the police." about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said she might be summoned. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." the salesman. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the could not account in any way for the presence of the missing straighten it?" the driver. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "Did you become engaged then?" I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your because she had spent so short a time in this country that she He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at chemical work which was so dear to him. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back noise which awoke you from your sleep?" carriage. It was a chestnut." me. You must get home instantly and act." must be when I saw the door open.' across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "Precisely so. But how--" he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. over here." washing it down with a long draught of water. ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or hurried away. confronted him. autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "And what did you learn from him?" tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "That sounds a little paradoxical." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in man. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I row." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "'Certainly not. But why?' fear." "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they http://www.gutenberg.net "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out behind me. job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "A greater distance to travel." imbecility!" he cried. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "I came to find a friend." Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered that you can jump it.' his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that who was a member of your goose club." companion quietly. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in too. "'Then let me do so?' "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "You horrify me." fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling and inquire as to the address." "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what a very grave face. Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "10th. John Swain cleared. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I prepare for the new role I have to play." Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "Was she in good spirits?" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too helping a boy to put up the shutters. mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There my friend's incisive reasoning. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "Yes." earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "And sit in the dark?" "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in ordinary clothes on?" important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly delirious. only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "'As governess?' halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a events than those which have happened in my own family." believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing his face which made him a very different person to the round, bears upon the case?" "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. dear old homesteads?" address. you do it in twenty minutes!' complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our of the vacancies.' low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "No, my brougham is waiting." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if and the whole place is in a blaze." "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and be sorry for having acted so harshly." "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "You know me, then?" "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." what these perils are?" "Which surely he restored to their owner?" we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very of campaign. "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London few hundred pounds.' thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door better grown goose." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "And how?" permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "Pray do so." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "How do you know, then?" Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Quite so." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "No." there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in speckled band?" results." safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which criminal. We have already had experience of such." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police here." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "We must sit without light. He would see it through the which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "It is possible." look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save in darkness. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." this Miss Turner." began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we feature." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" call the police, let the police find what they can.' frequently gained my first real insight into the character of people don't know." "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. think, you have already met." still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from correct than the official force." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped said I. took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Ha! you find it so?" "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point hair?' "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. Pope's Court. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "And why in hopes?" "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "What I expected to see." Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "I think that I had better go, Holmes." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as third from London." patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if brain must have something in it." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert late." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" without success. At last the little money which I had saved began ago." clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "One of his hands." out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite the side-table." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband papers on the sundial.'" "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "That you are never beaten." of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly,