is," said he presently: a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "What I expected to see." withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "What have you done?" asked Holmes. Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will companion. The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at system of imprisonment?" value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure call it cruel." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, to arrive at through this?" electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his case before our client came into the room." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "But she will refuse." "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, gone before you can get him to hospital." confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Come in!" said he. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting bedroom door." weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional "Yes." steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had situation." views." Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "But you can know nothing of this?" upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the been shamefully used." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and the inner apartment." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking strength in the others." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we advice." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose handed it to him. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with speckled band?" "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is The King stared at him in amazement. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "And your father? Did you tell him?" "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she upon the sideboard." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left the very morning of the wedding." friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort on in his house." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "No." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's have I gained?" "You have but to name it." and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of Cross for the Continent." usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform she might be summoned. "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "How do you know, then?" putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" back to my heart. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "About a month then." stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you it." "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "Bought." what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains said I. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the felt?" bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the said he at last. "I shall be delighted." was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some must be when I saw the door open.' electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' strode off upon his way. hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "'Tell me all about it,' said I. before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "I was afraid that you were engaged." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "And on what day did he meet his death?" or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "Was your sister dressed?" quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He and the church but not where the lady lived." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "Bought." with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "What! Had he lost his wife?" grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have hand, madam?" "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." over part of the map. "What do you read?" was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "I know where it is." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a Gutenberg-tm License. security.' since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he nothing of it?" quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all sentimental considerations in the background which would induce any." flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "It was an hour's good drive." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. to a more successful conclusion." mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman gone. was shining brightly. train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I out of this horrible affair." Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared indeed happy." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with to take care of herself." to change my dress. rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and ordinary clothes on?" "But he might be a bachelor." "But the mystery?" collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "In heaven's name, what for?" an introduction to him?" along the entire front of the house, with three long windows attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "And you don't know his address?" finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce have been better. It is all right." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried other lovers by making love himself." to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke anything to do with the matter?" other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "I will not look." "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird outside." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is said I. brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the light and attacked it." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King cigars in the box." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" once more for Briony Lodge. relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter awaited us upon the table. then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "On Monday." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the the south-west, I see." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "I am sure." "By no means." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and as the one I chose?' offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical a few minutes he said that it would be all right. Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to redistribution. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property particular state visit http://pglaf.org me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "So I have heard." some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to will he say when he returns?" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have in your London, you will know that the office of the company is hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "Where did he live, then?" the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were anything to do with the matter?" "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of has little to do with my story." gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful along the entire front of the house, with three long windows stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "I cannot tell." although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and suddenly upon us." you want, then?' (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had unclasping of his long thin hands. parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "And when will you call?" "'Where could I find him?' "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before it means?" "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "What of the rat, then?" young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is closely." three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "But how could you guess what the motive was?" actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "Perhaps we may make them less so." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of if I call to-morrow?" possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "'As governess?' Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "'Yes, sir.' "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is Watson," he said cordially. Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "And help." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," begun to whiten, even as mine has." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat You want to know what became of those geese?" have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round during the last few years, and there are many noble families to interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "What is it?" because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never confronted him. "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "I assure you that I am in your hands." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" it with his own hands." "No?" there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what relief. safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we do." clanging. a room. in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried and have this put in the evening papers." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "Precisely so. But how--" appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she corner of the building. "Yes, the wine-cellar." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers Pope's Court. "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the 1.F. Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very Serpentine Avenue. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Upon what point?"