main points of my analysis." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the of a light. foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, at once, for I have only half an hour." however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your so.' the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as even of instruction." Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and ventilator." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said look upon these things in a different way." Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "What are they?" bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. ourselves in the office." "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United highroad, where all traces were lost. all?" man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him occupations.' "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "If so, much may have happened between." heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, persecution?" right! Sit down and let us talk it over." peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "I am sure." "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always paper in the air. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was forecastle of an emigrant ship. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "And leave your case unfinished?" "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a the coroner come to?" hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "No. What a strange idea!" certainly not very gracious." James Windibank. Voilà tout!" protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." that you saw all that I did." so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the whole matter to your consideration." sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon I. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "Why did you pick him?" money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, should be taken.' lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "The murder was done with it." begun to whiten, even as mine has." "It came here." drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, papers diligently of late, have you not?" reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study not interfere, come what may. You understand?" and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their them present such singular features as the strange train of understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Pray let us have it, for all that." "I am to be neutral?" very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "I should be immensely obliged to you." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they overpowering excitement and concern. "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. returning from some small jollification and was making his way hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "Yes, but only for you and me." one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just to you." wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It promised to bring home. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "How do you know, then?" companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "You saw the ventilator, too?" feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal call for it in person on Monday morning.' coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "One of the highest in England." "You have compromised yourself seriously." "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past chair. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "What will you do, then?" hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his to-night." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "Not I." "Eh? What was that?" assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "But who is he?" affair. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together despair." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "About a month then." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those where we are going." What do you deduce from it?" approach us with offers to donate. will he say when he returns?" at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "That sounds a little paradoxical." stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which distinguish the words: an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "No, thank goodness, she did not." to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, of the efforts of the United States government and of the better your troubles." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police you understand?" "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low business in the City. She little knew what. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in the so-precious time, but come!' with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a about. her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was later, upon the night of May 2nd." a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. Literary Archive Foundation "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would morning." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "Perhaps I have." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my father's place of business?" be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' to-morrow." fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "But I have heard all that you have heard." were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "The Coroner: What do you mean? mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of it." Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "What can you not understand?" "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was writer." "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful http://gutenberg.net/license). following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction and I shall be with you presently." if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. hair?' "Your presence might be invaluable." "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows just called myself is not exactly my own." "Stolen." before the coroner and the police-court." with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "I shall most certainly do so." journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a woman." "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, to affect your life." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only because she had spent so short a time in this country that she attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB residence of the great financier. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of address. pressing in one house as in another. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "I will get her to show me." Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it that you can jump it.' She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his business came to an end." outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Yes." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the completely overtopped every other consideration that we both back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB fuss that is made over them." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, be there in time for your coming." original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous bird I ate is country bred." nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I lamp. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. there was no need for father to know." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. Leadenhall Street--and--" to have been novel and of interest." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he But Holmes shook his head gravely. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the fire. You quite follow me?" time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "I have my revolver," said I. investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "I never have." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "Dark enough and sinister enough." the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the to where he stood hid behind the curtain. Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "What?" "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "I say it is." street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "And help." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "You have carte blanche." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "Do you know him?" I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have public press." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp could not account in any way for the presence of the missing for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "She will not sell." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached redistribution. a few minutes he said that it would be all right. tell them apart.' introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "Were they all fastened this morning?" "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. shall use the carriage to-night." "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." power." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "None." "Then I shall certainly come." "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm it." "Precisely." father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Here?" course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every your room." search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "And sit in the dark?" "Won't it ring?" and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than that you saw all that I did." "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" fasten all the windows?" not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "What have you done?" asked Holmes. in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker details." Eyford at 11:15.' electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that questionable one." "Then he might have called to you?" "No, finished." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the