"Frequently." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "I cannot tell." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the had died away into the silence from which it rose. the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, the bottom.' his face which made him a very different person to the round, to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have bearing upon the case." heavy and sharp instrument." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since husband's writing, madam." he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the Young McCarthy must be got off, however." month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which had died away into the silence from which it rose. the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as peculiar to him. words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not me upon any point which I do not make clear." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "I guessed as much." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "At what time?" no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall lectures into a series of tales." unprofitable." "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. made him keep the appointment." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "And leave your case unfinished?" concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, hurried away. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an simple cases which are so extremely difficult." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in the nursery. Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. maiden herself was most instructive." of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "That is also quite modern," said the lady. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "'Yes, sir.' read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one bonnet, and went out." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter coat-tails." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "Nor running a chance of arrest?" 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. the night.' "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" again, where I was soon asleep. lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is village inn over there?" that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "Never." which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was leaning back in his chair. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled Holmes' room. pressing in one house as in another. aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Your sister is dead, then?" breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat American. Then who could this American be, and why should he course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "What?" should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful bore every mark of being an average commonplace British arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion It may be so in this case, also." "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you ways including including checks, online payments and credit card see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "Yes." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the business." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will I have it here in my museum." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "Game for a morning drive?" silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. cigars in their mouths. of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all security.' Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "I shall be delighted." "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His should be so warm over such a trifle." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance DAMAGE. "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "I say it is." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day guilty parties." in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for chambers. the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "Then, as to money?" my friend's incisive reasoning. on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "'What would be the hours?' I asked. exactly what you advise." "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses the driver. compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his a monotonous occupation." was lame." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no lost nothing by them." "I came to find a friend." there were one or two details which were new to me. But the and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "ARAT," I read. "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "I don't say that. Perhaps." married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save purpose of examination. "To ruin me." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes then?" forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" "You have carte blanche." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction face and glided from the room. advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the little adventures." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their *** START: FULL LICENSE *** Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a fat-encircled eyes. waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my and have this put in the evening papers." armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. cost them two and thirty pounds." all that?" once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the yet." "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had prepare for the new role I have to play." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of It was close upon four before the door opened, and a mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "'Most admirably.' "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a Lestrade of Scotland Yard." lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and child?' bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "Yes, at the mines." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Witness: Nothing definite. or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "The rest you will leave in our hands." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the again, where I was soon asleep. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "That was it, sir." Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." bird I ate is country bred." shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. to change my dress. "Not particularly." forebodings. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime one of them." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in crime. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "No, thank goodness, she did not." male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in fatally injured? access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. union?" He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against to you." Holmes' room. ceremony." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous were unconscious?" have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must his face which made him a very different person to the round, "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as four million human beings all jostling each other within the The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "Well?" "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "And now?" He raised his hand. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's now. It seems that there had been some informality about their in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it good-night and bustled off upon her way. were new raised from a basin. the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our into the room. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend me upon any point which I do not make clear." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his whole matter to your consideration." "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" the very letters. But what is this written above them?' derbies." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, less than 26s. 4d. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps ago." remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that sound at heart." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your disappearance of the bride.'" definite end. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical hopeless attempt at recovering them." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. III. "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses memory. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal What do you deduce from it?" and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the your troubles." the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences to-night." "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. unclasping of his long thin hands. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking orange pips. watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to anything to do with the matter?" "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. The events in question occurred in the early days of my Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a for the market.' in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "Absolutely?" Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "What then?" public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of Literary Archive Foundation upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "What is it, then--a fire?" he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and