"'Never,' said I. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The should be so warm over such a trifle." graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. he died? "And for present expenses?" furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. chambers. "You don't mind breaking the law?" of Mr. Rucastle's." a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "Deserted you?" responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" mysterious business." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "Won't it ring?" effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party begun to whiten, even as mine has." wedding?" side. whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than down in his armchair and closing his eyes. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. best detective that ever lived. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, the address that was given us in the advertisement. you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon mystery may be cleared along those lines." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "We must have a cab." been deceived." Gutenberg-tm License. thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it Gutenberg-tm License. Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a own family. "And the murderer?" satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter mysterious business." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at the child." recover the gem." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "Stolen." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had depend upon your compliance." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" the one as in the other." was not a bird to be seen there. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." learned something! Where are the gems?" mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a your only hope of safety." active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "'Yes, sir.' on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and disappearance of these gems?" wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "In which, sir?" can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the said he. photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain Stoke Moran." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to garden below. his huge brown hands. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you there has been an enclosure here!" secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord hour." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "'Certainly not. But why?' "They are typewritten," I remarked. your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are morning." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "What, then?" applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a sooner or later she must fall a victim. "And what did you learn from him?" took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." upon an income of about 60 pounds." near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could back into the street. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." did not hear it also.' trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower which our visitor detailed to us. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "The rest you will leave in our hands." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "It is a murder, then?" matter." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "May I see it?" he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "'Which dealer's?' footfalls from the street. "Certainly." absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. of receipt of the work. "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of and files of the old papers, following the future career of every headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "What office?" and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down third from London." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen examination of the premises, but without finding anything which eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "Where did you address your letters, then?" lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to to a more successful conclusion." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" the loss of it. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working appeared upon the scene." gbnewby@pglaf.org "Your sister is dead, then?" successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the results." threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by indeed happy." were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of the best of training." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she grasp, he hurried from the room. said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, points in connection with it which never have been, and probably the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "It may not come to that," said Holmes. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." my special province." is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "I cannot imagine." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. something of him before." entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "In the cells." shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall is so. I know all about McCarthy." these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up McCarthy's innocence. "'Where to?' but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the of receipt of the work. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great showing my impatience. to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, married her." wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "And the murderer?" "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I meant." and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to in his power. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." answer." you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of have I gained?" "'Where to?' conversation I have gathered that they have been married about to miss it." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "It is very kind of you." advice." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! that the gas is not laid on in his house?" leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right invisible to me," I remarked. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. over his head with a sweet womanly caress. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right business?" to-morrow." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "'Why that?' I asks. they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And Again Holmes raved in the air. the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "And that is--" send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what will be renamed. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would cigars in the box." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever during which he might have communicated with his friend the "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in straightened it out again. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "No." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "'Which dealer's?' what I may call a really hard day's work." make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "No." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The certainly not very gracious." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "'There is a drive, then?' shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that writing, and yet I know it well." contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. never will be, entirely cleared up. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project to have been novel and of interest." "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now over part of the map. "What do you read?" "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged his cane at the bell-pull. "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly disturbance in my wife." in this way: remarked. at my own good fortune. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "He said that you could solve anything." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the said he. Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I trying to your nerves." Sutherland?" Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest deduce something from that?" either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as digesting their breakfasts at home." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "What of the rat, then?" Mrs. Toller serenely. persecution?" you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "'Oh, no.' stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "No." "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little DAMAGE. man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must geese which you supplied to the Alpha." word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in despaired of." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. wanted for ourselves." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to with some details as to your case." to-night?' Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the fat-encircled eyes. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying Young McCarthy must be got off, however." out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where least a fellow-countryman. freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a all that?" was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; did not hear it also.' down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "At the wedding breakfast." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my lumber-room." "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage of a light. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other this man was intellectual?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "Witness: It was. of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his place, I think that there is good ground to think that the the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I of the way of danger. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "I do." continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to his face. examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was redistribution. nonsense.' "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "I don't believe it." more solid." evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a