crackling voice. pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "At half-wages, in fact." and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I must compliment you." "What, then?" This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "'I shall certainly be there.' IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, our word." no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "Yes, all." "Stolen." Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "That is it on the dressing-table." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "I say it is." "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but strong and stiff." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at information in his hands the value of which he did not himself which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive strength." was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my ceremony." considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very yourselves in at night?" about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Was there a secret marriage?" "One?" in this note: would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil asked. upon the shelf for the interim." slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried made his money." know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." pictures, libraries, or plate. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the least a fellow-countryman. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "'Not at all. I only doubt--' A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You brain must have something in it." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away said Mr. Holder. bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us she slowly sank and died without having recovered her It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "I promise," said Holmes. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "Very truly yours, "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "Quite so. She has her freedom." empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now back into the street. "We must sit without light. He would see it through the charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman I. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "'A dozen yards or so.' things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." him." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Oh, fresh and glossy." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the promised to bring home. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates excitement. occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits During two years I have had three consultations and one small breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "'Certainly not.' I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "My stepfather's business papers." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "You have it, sir, just as it happened." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a wife's character?" hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the My friend smiled. "Seven!" I answered. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as voice. "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place infinite languor in his face. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time Foundation "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or in the hope of finding them." "I will do it." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman any little problem which you may submit to me." "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." union?" endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "Then the page we have seen--" "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both for and were ordered to this address. "It may not come to that," said Holmes. call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to answered with a sidelong glance. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would has little to do with my story." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with His name is Francis Prosper." recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than carriage. It was a chestnut." "'What then?' I asked. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "What I expected to see." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is bedroom door." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his have accepted such a situation. yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, whereabouts. air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open your bag." he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "To ruin me." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Yes, I have one waiting." Pool. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "And your father? Did you tell him?" "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "To an English lawyer named Norton." yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in fait accompli?" there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than pictures, libraries, or plate. which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they me. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I him!" also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank province." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the your co-operation." should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. since then to throw any light upon what became of him." golden eyeglasses. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Holmes, the busybody!" "Well?" against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet his knees, staring into the fire. may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "It surprised me." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of cheerful." called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "An accident, I presume?" The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "Why? What do you mean?" said he, "my real name is James Ryder." that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern careless servant girl?" questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "You don't mind breaking the law?" "How are you getting on?" seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the delighted to hear it," he said. respectable self." brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a the so-precious time, but come!' for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for them?" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived the best of training." "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from of the efforts of the United States government and of the better doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "'Stolen!' he cried. discontent upon his features. or other trace. But how on earth--" you." "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable outside." have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without shoulder. if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter and glanced through. "But we can't all be." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. him to be an active member of the medical profession." believe that I should never have any practice at all. science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, direction." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at arms and began to sob in a high treble key. of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and and looked back. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. with frightened eyes at his accuser. "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "None. Neville wrote those words." copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you electronic works focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "But his lameness?" and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "I shall be delighted." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "I don't say that. Perhaps." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "I see many objections to any such theory." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We maiden herself was most instructive." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "'Quite sure, dad.' merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did the running down." "You have compromised yourself seriously." have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and