As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the http://gutenberg.net/license). least a fellow-countryman. jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "Get out!" said he. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "My last client of the sort was a king." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich detained." The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it cigars in their mouths. smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "I say that I have solved it." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. carpenter." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "Witness: It was. "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." third from London." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you unkempt, staring out at me. doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I time." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Won't it ring?" I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "Do you go out much in society?" "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "I have hopes." "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "Tired-looking or fresh?" "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my highroad, where all traces were lost. Sutherland?" demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the light and attacked it." "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and writer." "By all means." "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his seven miles from Eyford Station.' I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the the ceiling. "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent His smile broadened. without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still and laid it on the table. Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "Yes, but only for you and me." deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "And why?" see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included hands. them present such singular features as the strange train of pierced for earrings?" considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls brought there to personate someone, and the real person is say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "Of what day?" For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it intimate personal affairs in this public manner." have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I not fit the lock." been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "I cannot as yet see any connection." was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from intimate personal affairs in this public manner." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. in his power. which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "I am about to be married." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the amused." appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. ago." against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "It must be recovered." mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "An enemy?" nights." "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "I cannot imagine." "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here and put his glass in his pocket. that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "What! You do not mean bodies?" scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds never will be, entirely cleared up. copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The some place of shelter and let the county police know what has over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other think you a quite exceptional woman." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I nonsense.' occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" lips." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped 11:15.' with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "It must be recovered." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know For additional contact information: rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view best detective that ever lived. "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the and it need not interfere very much with one's other after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a of this gang." "Has he come with you to-night?" the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "There are none." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. there!' "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, This is what he says: endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "Who was the criminal, then?" "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "Where to?" is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "What then?" He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in examination of the premises, but without finding anything which the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of in this note: fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "Yes, it would be as well." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it thin legs towards the fire. joking. "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "Pray do so." come either from the window or the door. My attention was morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that he died? "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken important." "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and even of instruction." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with remarked. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "I have come for advice." thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian questionable one." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to Holmes' thin, eager face. "You are all wrong." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the was not a bird to be seen there. signal between you and your father? "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "'In my own bureau.' "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "'You doubt its value?' he asked. Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "You are all wrong." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" head. So long, then!" "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle it were putty." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are the coronet in his hand?" What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "Have you her photograph?" wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took not personally threatened." the bed, and you in that chair." little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "I am armed." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in distance from the station, and there we found the young lady the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "At what time?" social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous the driver. whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and bled considerably." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" client, rising. "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in I took the paper from him and read as follows: which our visitor detailed to us. "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "But your client--" and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the his wife has ceased to love him." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my placed his cuttings. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from little trying to do so much typewriting?" "I was afraid that you were engaged." claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had would apply.' "Why serious?" "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "I saw her in conversation with her maid." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in an introduction to him?" "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "And Miss Sutherland?" simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered woman." been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some morning." the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "I am to be neutral?" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She the warnings." suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "You have but to name it." "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of as this. Pray let me have the details." at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss bonnet, and went out." Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do emerged. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the orange pips. murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too matter." Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I that I may have something better before very many minutes are "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem right! Sit down and let us talk it over." information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side said I. "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." floor. understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. been anything against him. He had for years been known as a sound at heart." information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official