leaning back in his chair. "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the James Windibank. Voilà tout!" is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "It is solved." "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "Very well, sir. And this stone?" its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. him to go away.' "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "What can you not understand?" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "Here?" interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in individual and becomes the badge of a society." income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." meant." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you DAMAGE. "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock before, for it was considerably after midnight. Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "She showed me, as I told you she would." were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of our word." greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would arrested. You then--" away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of third from London." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, within hail.' which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "It must be recovered." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "Yes." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their to a light-house. his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he arrested. You then--" Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and round and wave him away like that.' my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "'A dozen yards or so.' flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Did you become engaged then?" tell me that you intended to go into harness." for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said said I. cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would several quiet little villages up there." where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was success. name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "Where did you address your letters, then?" IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of that threaten you." mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "My private note-paper." manager. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may trying to your nerves." sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the The King stared at him in amazement. was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, crowd. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "'Never.' twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so if she died from some sudden fright." "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all the roots. it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back But Holmes shook his head gravely. "Very. But will he see it?" Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. the bed, and you in that chair." of Fenchurch Street." ashen face. "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was you." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from Count Von Kramm." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off them, and came down just as you departed. "Yes, sir." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "You heard nothing yourself last night?" not as remarkable as your advertisement." this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he photograph a cabinet?" to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "And from a noble client?" 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, chambers. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "The Coroner: What do you mean? no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner the armchair which I pushed forward for him. was a lad." "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "And what then?" out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's lips." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of as yours." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have said I. Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "I was afraid that you were engaged." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat charged with?" sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and once more to my work. result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "No. What a strange idea!" "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "She will not sell." There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One think, you have already met." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy said he. questionable one." "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "And from a noble client?" "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "No, thank goodness, she did not." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are the bottom.' himself to hunt down. if she died from some sudden fright." more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "That was it, sir." the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." as noiselessly as she had come. It was close upon four before the door opened, and a All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself there!' "'Stolen!' he cried. the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "Yes." your sleep?' Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "So I heard. You have him here?" them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "I assure you that I am in your hands." mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "What are they?" could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round fire. You quite follow me?" who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' to have been novel and of interest." protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler manager. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open individual and becomes the badge of a society." you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the Sutherland. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "Where is it, then?" which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had nonsense.' "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone straightened it out again. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in absolutely follow my advice in every respect." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such gives a meaning to it." be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of think you a quite exceptional woman." I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the that I may have something better before very many minutes are even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and of it with the greatest attention. 1.F. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose hurried away. "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are reach." "But his left-handedness." firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a beyond words. presented more singular features than that which was associated it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man tassel actually lying upon the pillow. scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw your equipment. "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. charge against him will break down." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "In answer to an advertisement." "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should politicians who had been sent down from the North. "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "What, then, did Peterson do?" distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. outsides of the windows. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "In answer to an advertisement." "'Quite sure, dad.' "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I were unconscious?" reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in there when the Rucastles went away." "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "I am sure." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will he. "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "I have a cab outside." who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "Never to return." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy stammered. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, do you make of it all?" you in your example." WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. to a light-house. Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the works. See paragraph 1.E below. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "I am about to be married." "Holmes, the busybody!" "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is for securing the situation." crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "No, but the enclosure is." would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "'About the same.' "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The been with you?" been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "Not in a good cause." wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they together. ventilator." Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed on in his house." her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any hard-headed British jury." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "'Where to?' opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "What! Had he lost his wife?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. plantation.' entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect,