as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "Well, some hundreds of times." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking ourselves in the office." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been to me. woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may impression behind it as though a window had gently closed know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were to-morrow." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers reach." body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in IS "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "I cannot say that I have." "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "She will not sell." Street. "You'll never persuade me to believe that." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though that, and I came down." then?" the south-west, I see." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I a monotonous occupation." was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "'Yes.' Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "Always." "From his hat?" the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has himself to tell his story. a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "I saw her in conversation with her maid." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the From what you have told me I think that it is possible that on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and in a very precise fashion." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call "Yes." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a this as likely?" grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" are, I think, all that we need." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; fat-encircled eyes. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "And how in the world did you find them?" joking. answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. outbreak?" "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, outsides of the windows. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "'And the work?' wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. photograph a cabinet?" fact, we may call it conclusive." "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father was a perfect sample of the class. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "What, then, did Peterson do?" Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "But how did you gain them?" uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "Who was the criminal, then?" Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the arrested. You then--" ways including including checks, online payments and credit card crackling voice. concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had night.' said he. course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that outside. pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary States. formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "And that is--" of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There with some details as to your case." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and occupations.' "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his McCarthy." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "'As governess?' into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." yourselves in at night?" "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at enter into my head. "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "If so, much may have happened between." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "A client, then?" mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I presented which may be striking and bizarre without being day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" gentleman's clothes. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in returned to France?" "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out Holmes' thin, eager face. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "My opinion is in no way altered." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, observed. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "No." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "Frequently." bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "At half-wages, in fact." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the new duties?' it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, and put his glass in his pocket. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "In the cells." the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, and shall probably return to London by the evening train." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "And is that all?" present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or soul! here is her carriage at the door." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted whatever might befall. such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say out of this horrible affair." nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "Which surely he restored to their owner?" was lame." it means?" one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled conduct the inquiry." Chief Executive and Director lips." "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small narrative." maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow young Openshaw's." once more for Briony Lodge. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad His name is Francis Prosper." advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange I leave." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which some city in a dream. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. started for the Temple to see my husband. "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a "No, I had a dozen." hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for instituted." down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "The murder was done with it." delirious. of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a awaited us upon the table. little adventures." "I have come for advice." he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it quick march!" considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the in his hands." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on one of them." sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You light and attacked it." which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my posted to-day." dead, shall be safe with us." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "'You cannot say what it was?' "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "By all means." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a page at http://pglaf.org very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "Ha! you find it so?" play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible could gather together that I was able to avert another public five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down spark where all is dark to me." "Who by?" "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "I should wish to." these bleak autumnal evenings." unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a "No, my brougham is waiting." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." little adventures." these bleak autumnal evenings." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with Literary Archive Foundation the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always to-night." but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room this as likely?" who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the his huge brown hands. instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too sit on the left-hand side of the driver." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a gives a meaning to it." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. gigantic client. went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. which are rolled in Rotterdam." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "Breckinridge is his name." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the said he. possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each point in the dark hollow of his hand. conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "Seven!" I answered. down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. quickly through a disagreeable task. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "What?" every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "What, then, did Peterson do?" hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "It is true that I have been generally successful." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the