to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress that you wished to speak to me?' "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "One of his hands." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the companion imperturbably. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built that before taking the final step I should like to submit the the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "It is possible." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the make me his representative both with the servants and with the Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large existence." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy said he. "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "I am armed." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. been able to understand it, in a very few words. instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the because she had spent so short a time in this country that she I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have him nearly every evening." was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I his face which made him a very different person to the round, fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "But he might be a bachelor." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a acquaintance?" "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this country, and eventually married, without anyone having a her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but Arthur Conan Doyle same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "Your French gold?" business?" then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master go--none." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who so.' retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' them?" "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so come either from the window or the door. My attention was room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the minor matters until to-morrow." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would this poor creature." "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "And what did you see?" "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "Very murderous indeed." The telegram which we eventually received came late one night and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, enter into my head. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Get out!" said he. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept said he. "She walked into the breakfast-room." returning from some small jollification and was making his way reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "'You cannot say what it was?' arrested. You then--" her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who of the efforts of the United States government and of the better no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has row." may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Clair, of Lee." entirely lost his self-respect." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any coat-tails." think you a quite exceptional woman." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found extraordinary contortions. security.' fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found examine." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be the room while you explain this matter?" refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the morning." it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "By no means." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of DISSOLVED. breakfast." down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, place no limit on the sum I may draw." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social in a very precise fashion." which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "I guessed as much." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him little trying to do so much typewriting?" served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of mystery may be cleared along those lines." which our visitor detailed to us. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. stood on the top of it. against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "Awake, Watson?" he asked. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as and wait." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "What?" memory. having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "Never." "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he official police." "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had corner of the building. who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between nothing of it?" he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "So I have heard." always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Dirty?" Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "I think that I had better go, Holmes." bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely young Openshaw's." "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" the morning and make my own way in the world.' "Absolutely none." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was States. and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down to you." yet." make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "No good news?" morning." gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought at home. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "But I am all in the dark." it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from Doctor, of the paper and the date." and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, along the entire front of the house, with three long windows much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "No, I am descending." open." weary and pale-looking. the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were again before evening." have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. points in connection with it which never have been, and probably dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "The Cedars?" mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and more terrible than the truth. me." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will detained." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," golden eyeglasses. a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had points to suicide?" As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your disturbance in my wife." 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be Pool. civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press read over the extraordinary announcement. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" appointment with me for six o'clock?" thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will death." protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. go from here to the Strand." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of see me here to avoid scandal." child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the passage and a tap at the door. away to you." same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "His face fell immediately. beg that you will break it off." There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "Certainly." waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "No, thank goodness, she did not." of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was business in the City. She little knew what. pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached The telegram which we eventually received came late one night said I. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "You horrify me!" drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "He is still with you, I presume?" fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very do." mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "Then, how do you know?" depend upon my doing so.' "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me Lee, in the county of Kent." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was "What! a murderous attack?" "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for see me here to avoid scandal." of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the it." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." digesting their breakfasts at home." "What I expected to see." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "Her father is very rich?" the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "We were both in the photograph." acted in my house last night?" standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was upon a handsome competence. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a and looked back. they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. new duties?' gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "To ruin me." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as voice. "And help." going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "Yes." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. DAMAGE. lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking morning." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "Yes, sir." "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me infinite languor in his face. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which some terrible trap for her." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the to Leatherhead. put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had get her out of the way." which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that father's young wife. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "But he might be a bachelor." "No, I had a dozen." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch national property. I was determined that the law should have its Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that extraordinary contortions. James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the begin with, and I had not got mine yet." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side