but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America dates and names. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not salesman. Farm upon the left." outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one easy-going way." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "'Yes, sir.' think you a quite exceptional woman." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. "Nothing." until night should bring an explanation. "I don't believe it." outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "There is the writing." Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman behind me. decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately like gravel from a pit.' your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our your own bird, so if you wish--" without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the dear old homesteads?" "That was it, sir." his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "I am armed." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, never to learn it at all." very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! your bag." two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been a suggestive one." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" http://www.gutenberg.net investigation." been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "The Coroner: What do you mean? appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "'Not at all. I only doubt--' into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out place no limit on the sum I may draw." face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You outside." elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again acted in my house last night?" as he folded up the epistle. with you?" armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the which we had just quitted. the coronet in his hands?" "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. she might be summoned. that before taking the final step I should like to submit the through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "It is true that I have been generally successful." something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all said I. never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "Pray tell us what has happened to you." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait four million human beings all jostling each other within the prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "You have compromised yourself seriously." a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Not yet." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like I nodded again. to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are begin with, and I had not got mine yet." By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a developed." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram will be renamed. remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." absorbing." very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came mysterious business." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' him. strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his him!" round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "But who is he?" business at Coburg Square is serious." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? meanly of me." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. occupations.' "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "No, I am descending." "And Irene Adler?" "Perfectly so." disappearance of these gems?" smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations chance." street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "'I have heard so.' have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: your only hope of safety." my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there all-comprehensive glances. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I other lovers by making love himself." income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my most interesting one." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, see a sister of mine apply for." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "'You doubt its value?' he asked. can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London felt the room to be a little close.' "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not drawing your inferences." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to security.' "I cannot as yet see any connection." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes instituted." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he it." bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "'Quite sure, dad.' with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or Holmes' room. squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of been shamefully used." and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur room had already been engaged for us. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. humiliation." "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "I will, Miss Turner." with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner question. particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "You will not go there first?" also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical sufficient punishment." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead you." them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her of the vacancies.' but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "We were both in the photograph." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "Pray continue your narrative." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "But what will you do?" that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue started for the Temple to see my husband. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "'Quite sure, dad.' PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, chamber." there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." existence." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "Where did you address your letters, then?" burst into a hearty fit of laughter. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as only touch the interest." that I can to serve you." "There are none." you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make were wasted." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "There are none." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist other means.' away into the river." exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and into the room. poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical conversation I have gathered that they have been married about Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "Seven!" I answered. 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed call the police, let the police find what they can.' there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "And for present expenses?" But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." test if we have an answer to our advertisement." my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while my special province." I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and very morning of my second wedding." peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing McCarthy's innocence. "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair introspective fashion. into the bag, and made for the door. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house sake, don't!" the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy companion. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "That was it, sir." "I promise," said Holmes. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" again." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill in the hope of finding them." and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, was a lad." much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting of." There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see bears upon the case?" one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a thin, with a long, sharp nose?" went to the Alpha were town bred." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal memory. comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that to-morrow." me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if it means?" Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into in this note: "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "But she will refuse." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that lips." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. is worth.' been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter heavily into it. The note was undated, and without either signature or address. subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey any." very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "You'll never persuade me to believe that." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." there!' to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, that money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the really the only notable feature about the thing." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the open." upon the shelf for the interim." from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a matter over." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large enough to aid us in our search." laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders away into the river." makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had was not a bird to be seen there. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us