sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of what do you think they found in the pockets?" the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all emerged. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. hands. over here." That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he undoubtedly my uncle's." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" there were so many in the whole country as were brought together revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, writer." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "I say that I have solved it." And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case to have that photograph." that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this Clair, of Lee." chamber." and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "I was sure that I might rely on you." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white fasten all the windows?" "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared gone. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her now. It seems that there had been some informality about their looking up at the numbers of the houses." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective crime." it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch The events in question occurred in the early days of my crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been for and were ordered to this address. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set I am not easy in my mind about them." train.' of the vacancies.' undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, man. I know him from the photograph." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell in this note: "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "And you thought he was pulled back?" years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "Not him." heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "And how did you find out?" results." "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I your bag." the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it followed. definite end. star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture is," said he presently: in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the forehead. dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Only as much as we can deduce." rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "'You doubt its value?' he asked. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Game for a morning drive?" We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an friends, not even his own brother. of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Seven!" I answered. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, tightly behind him. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "That also I could fathom." from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "I do." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the But Holmes shook his head gravely. laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some III. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up said I. companion imperturbably. "Nothing?" least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "But his lameness?" down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was something of him before." look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." three of the beryls in it, was missing. all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. one else, I think." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two Have you good authority for what you say?" should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered will take you up to see the machine.' trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" shall use the carriage to-night." "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "What is it, then--a fire?" "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. then?" take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I ways including including checks, online payments and credit card the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "By no means." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I presume?" slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the late." better grown goose." hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has present." "Married! When?" possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "I am still in the dark." going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." the matter?" blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by me. You must get home instantly and act." Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "I think that it is very probable." distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to to-night?' I. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking to-night?' elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate he. "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said pound a week." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, feature." like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "And how have you succeeded?" All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he carriage. It was a chestnut." "My last client of the sort was a king." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed intimate personal affairs in this public manner." moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me fishes. room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." your troubles." lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "But you would not advise me to refuse?" whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his roused himself from his reverie. fish-monger and a tide-waiter." of the efforts of the United States government and of the better from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "None." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out page at http://pglaf.org dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the "Not I." PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK The events in question occurred in the early days of my in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "And on what day did he meet his death?" his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: know all about it," he snarled. opened the door, and slipped through. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we excitement. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock ran thus: He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "Yes, it would be as well." explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, there has been an enclosure here!" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great business?" more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel American. Then who could this American be, and why should he house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "'And the work?' exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin as noiselessly as she had come. do you make of it all?" comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this chance." humiliation." conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" over part of the map. "What do you read?" crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "That's no good." tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your shaken than I had ever seen him. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." the bed, and you in that chair." "Thank you. And your address?" still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass ourselves in the office." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "You have but to name it." propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it you?" so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is most interesting one." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "Awake, Watson?" he asked. out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have Young McCarthy must be got off, however." wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the your room." recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin already referred to. "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at not as remarkable as your advertisement." are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six occurred." poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "No, finished." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "On the contrary, this is the right side." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of salesman. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "I think it very unlikely." safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been nonsense.' discontent upon his features. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up quickly through a disagreeable task. "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the photograph a cabinet?" and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help upon an income of about 60 pounds." posted to-day." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so likely to be some crony of the landlady's." turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bare slabs of marble. "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after