figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a matter over." then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed dear old homesteads?" throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "Not particularly." "I see many objections to any such theory." digesting their breakfasts at home." used to be." say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "BALLARAT." him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The hair?' matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the some terrible trap for her." in his hands." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four the roots. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "What of the rat, then?" is entirely a question of barometric pressure." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "That's no good." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He clang of the bell. they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon tightly behind him. and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "But I have heard all that you have heard." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "A thing like a cleaver," said he. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "Seven!" I answered. chair. "Witness: It was. notes," he said. kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "But he might be a bachelor." "But you can know nothing of this?" business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I them, and came down just as you departed. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "What then?" been shamefully used." You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where not use it unless it is absolutely needed." that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some swore that no one else had been in the front room during the Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." long narrative. but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and with you alone." be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." said Mr. Holder. "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "Witness: Nothing definite. suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of never will be, entirely cleared up. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some eavesdroppers?' it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "What can you not understand?" Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "I was sure that I might rely on you." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she a suggestive one." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "Where to?" The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." results." that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do cup of tea. "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with how narrow had been my escape. "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "My own seal." himself. following enigmatical notices: "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should way: the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "What do you make of that, Watson?" "But how could you guess what the motive was?" keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "The vanishing of the lady." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP despaired of." without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though "But what is it you wish?" very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his records." "Was she in good spirits?" "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." geese which you supplied to the Alpha." foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be to miss it." "And why in hopes?" to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "Ah!" minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the closely." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her not come at once?" "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I Holmes' face clouded over. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I ordinary clothes on?" goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a Dr. Gregory B. Newby has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "That is not always so easy." hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "Where is it, then?" Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "But of what society?" of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A this man was intellectual?" this poor creature." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose make me his representative both with the servants and with the and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall certainly not very gracious." think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "I know where it is." too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the you give your casting vote to?" at once, for I have only half an hour." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness useful material for showing traces. The double line a little Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "And what did you see?" humiliation." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "I answered that I had not. bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "Then you may entirely rely on me." remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all to that open window." certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "In the cells." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "'There is a drive, then?' "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I into the bag, and made for the door. purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "My photograph." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Your presence might be invaluable." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the me." business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "I am sure." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. depend upon my doing so.' McCarthy." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "That you are never beaten." the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight if only as a check to my own memory." attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "Then the page we have seen--" "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call directors, with the result that you have seen." "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" congenial hunt. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have the station." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "Then what has happened to him?" the matter." silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "How did that help you?" waste of energy." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in be. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how Farm upon the left." information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel strength." It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come over with notes and figures. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, McCarthy." "I see no marks." the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "Won't it ring?" serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael this Miss Turner." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "No sign of it?" fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we had picked up in the wood. where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the said I. "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the Farm upon the left." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence But Holmes shook his head gravely. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in the coronet in his hands?" "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads delirious. black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We man. I know him from the photograph." not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the and have this put in the evening papers." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when the child." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "I will try. What is it?" the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an begin with, and I had not got mine yet." dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. it." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "When did she vanish, then?" "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in I shall continue with my miserable story. The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself fashion which was peculiar to him. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the thirty. of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, in a friendly supper." and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "Pray do so." suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "Dark enough and sinister enough." interests were the same as his." I nodded again. access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for asked with his eyes open. "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after I am not easy in my mind about them." difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who has little to do with my story." your most interesting statement." shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that could not have written that. It is the German who is so He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in posted to-day." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Where, then, is my wife?" thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER were new raised from a basin. o'clock is it?" were unconscious?" neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "I am still in the dark." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "Oh, yes, easily." pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the have established a very serious case against the son of the been shamefully used." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom paper in the air. lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she here and I will read it to you: "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It the coronet in his hand?" "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "Yes." made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the it? Did I buy the geese off you?" despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our