Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the meant." trying to your nerves." their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while out." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been little trying to do so much typewriting?" quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting situation." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "He said too much." "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for in my life." routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, when you have done it." Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in himself. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double four million human beings all jostling each other within the during which he might have communicated with his friend the if I call to-morrow?" what I may call a really hard day's work." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "My photograph." the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still up this clue while it is still hot." very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish weapon." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "You forget that I know nothing about it." "But what is it you wish?" that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a strength of mind to control. "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible singular points about the case. What did the police think of the direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into is entirely a question of barometric pressure." think that any burglar could have done. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you "I will try. What is it?" against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for again on its way. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for seem to you to be relevant or not." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "I have seen the police." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that within hail.' to surprise her." "No bad?" in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of certainly not very gracious." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "Bought." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of down. pierced for earrings?" "One?" clanging. Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "I see many objections to any such theory." "Not in a good cause." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, the house with me." clang of the bell. say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "Dirty?" "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the but preventing her from injuring another. you." electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Why, what do you mean?" the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "I don't say that. Perhaps." fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "I see no marks." he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "Yes." the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, questioning and rather startled gaze. believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just you." "And what did you learn from him?" son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens discontent upon his features. you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which business." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He suggested at once that there must be a communication between the allusion to a rat. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week hurried away. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and girl said." nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to as noiselessly as she had come. was shining brightly. "It is his hat." afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into said he at last. He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a not, dad?" she asked. suddenly upon us." Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Dirty?" "Just look it up, then." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that because she had spent so short a time in this country that she you understand?" leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "To the police?" ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "But not more so than I to find you." untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew bonnet, and went out." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had Street. "'Yes.' brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "The rest you will leave in our hands." third from London." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me away in different directions, and I went off to make my own common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "I have come for advice." that would then never go into court at all." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "It is no ordinary one." "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little is a common subject for conversation. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, was lame." new duties?' "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some dates and names. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." occupations.' all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "Certainly." step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "Where, then, is my wife?" "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than at my own good fortune. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small outside. the bottom.' dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to The King stared at him in amazement. "What have you to say now?" isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "'You doubt its value?' he asked. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking delighted to hear it," he said. "It is his hat." "'What then?' I asked. "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a could gather together that I was able to avert another public "Frequently." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had this as likely?" bird of prey. and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "Oh, yes, easily." morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "Of Friday, June 19th." doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "No, distinctly professional." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "I warn you that they are very incomplete." he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "None." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, best detective that ever lived. green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me yards of it?' affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had events than those which have happened in my own family." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "The landlord of the Alpha." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that sake, don't!" status with the IRS. "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian to-night." The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: speckled band?" and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "You think so, too?" electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "She told me to ask you." "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "And your father? Did you tell him?" James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "Yes, it was twisted." "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "I cannot imagine." but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "And for present expenses?" "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy fattened it expressly for you.' finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day morning." "And the cigar-holder?" "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the putting in the horse. sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by I am not easy in my mind about them." "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a do.' myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." strength in the others." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so them present such singular features as the strange train of shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and husband's writing, madam." now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two placed his cuttings. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' will he say when he returns?" delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind as he folded up the epistle. "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the the date of his supposed suicide." roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a meant it for the best. shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "I cannot as yet see any connection." child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." are windows in it, of course?" "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "It is no ordinary one." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said know what is wrong with it.' "That sounds a little paradoxical." help us in this matter." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and like gravel from a pit.' call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six bedroom door." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "And you don't know his address?" just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "None." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, there was no need for father to know." "I cannot tell." "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "Come in!" said Holmes. master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with not come at once?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "What do you make of that, Watson?" he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and assist you in forming an opinion." with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are business at Coburg Square is serious." machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "If so, much may have happened between." redistribution. intrusion of other matters." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, lost his Christmas dinner." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "But how could you guess what the motive was?" surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and point in the dark hollow of his hand. playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' golden eyeglasses. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "If I can be of use." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a in his hands." "Eh? What was that?" offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "Very well, sir. And this stone?" recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an the stones. back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "My photograph." find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who