reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Did you become engaged then?" return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. quick march!" the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the companion. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, client, rising. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the signal between you and your father? high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "But what is it you wish?" "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save Holmes. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it there in twenty minutes." for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "I cannot imagine." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try brain must have something in it." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "'Why that?' I asks. coroner's jury." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity both be extremely obliged.' centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at and the church but not where the lady lived." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a bonnet, and went out." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "What, then, did Peterson do?" "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "Only as much as we can deduce." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from daring than any effort of the imagination." be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his true." "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. think, you have already met." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me standing smiling on the door-step. gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money lost nothing by them." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "'Stolen!' he cried. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white are windows in it, of course?" abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the I approached. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I strong and stiff." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "I say that I have solved it." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "I cannot tell." together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "And from a noble client?" discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "'Then let me do so?' "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very the stones. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "Of Friday, June 19th." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "Then, how do you know?" I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow in a very precise fashion." "Where did he live, then?" Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see McCarthy." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "'What then?' I asked. "It is half-past ten now." despaired of." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my It was close upon four before the door opened, and a about. "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "The doctor?" For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "Here?" Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just Count Von Kramm." almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes as yours." your troubles." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "We must sit without light. He would see it through the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then father's young wife. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "I saw her in conversation with her maid." contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid one of them." "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. neither fascinating nor artistic." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that burst out into a roar of laughter. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, triumphant cloud from his cigarette. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always Leadenhall Street--and--" "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "It surprised me." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, Pool. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" telegram would bring me down to your help." Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as The note was undated, and without either signature or address. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "I do." information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." good for you to do.' may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "But you can know nothing of this?" very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." know that the truth is known." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at bachelor.' gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or vault. of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last money should be paid at once.' an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take an introduction to him?" "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now gigantic client. "I say that I have solved it." But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "And how have you succeeded?" puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Here?" to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we I nodded to show that I had heard. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, away in different directions, and I went off to make my own in this way: "What, then?" "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon yet." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It held up the lantern and gazed about him. of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "It was an hour's good drive." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." business matters.' confronted him. as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, hands. be. the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." there." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." you give your casting vote to?" "But he might be a bachelor." the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country national property. I was determined that the law should have its mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull flock.' "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my back to my heart. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not public press." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." indeed happy." retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the acted in my house last night?" which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I keep the flames under. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "Your French gold?" hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty back into the street. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "To an English lawyer named Norton." eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his in his power. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. I was concerned in it." hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "What! a murderous attack?" "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned than to us. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "I cannot tell." send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could your equipment. instincts rose up against that laugh. We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "'Ten to two.' hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one lips." ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which but preventing her from injuring another. Have you good authority for what you say?" "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "Yes." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had emerged. the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "Do you go out much in society?" "That was it, sir." was it brought him the coronet? the loss of it. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his correct than the official force." the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging "Absolutely none." completely overtopped every other consideration that we both 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is detective. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the about. face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. burst out into a roar of laughter. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to woman who has had her own way to make in the world. remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of will he say when he returns?" an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very morning." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six seem to you to be relevant or not." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have do you make of it all?" His smile broadened. and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "No, I think that I'll take it." to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "You horrify me!" ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, enough to aid us in our search." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no man. I know him from the photograph." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, nonsense.' Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my "'Oh, no.' professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "Yes, the wine-cellar." "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry o'clock is it?" "And the murderer?" logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. generous with you in money matters.' she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At acquaintance?" "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you instincts rose up against that laugh. perplexity from it to my illustrious client. could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened whole matter to your consideration." advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have woman." at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "No." developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I fat-encircled eyes. Pope's Court.