Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "What can you not understand?" fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if presented more singular features than that which was associated called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, as the one I chose?' "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "I would give my fortune to have them back." word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "How about poison?" sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to one of the states of the Union." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a three of the beryls in it, was missing. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it sit on the left-hand side of the driver." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at some city in a dream. both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. colonel looking down at me. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "No." multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "Breckinridge is his name." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to helping a boy to put up the shutters. and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his noting anything else of interest. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country the coronet in his hand?" me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining giving me time to thank him. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "'Yes, I promise.' the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's grasp, he hurried from the room. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but forbidden door. said he at last. "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "It looks newer than the other things?" "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "Certainly." glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed held up the lantern and gazed about him. brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an affair. I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "He said that you could solve anything." France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little whole matter to your consideration." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "Murdered?" and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to do.' "It must be recovered." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" man. I know him from the photograph." "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "And you thought he was pulled back?" pictures, libraries, or plate. hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy in his power. "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet "I guessed as much." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "'Where to?' is worth.' this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save lumber-room." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, ran thus: my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that rooms." case before our client came into the room." his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the him to be an active member of the medical profession." pound a week." face and glided from the room. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" to you." to-night's adventure." these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ Leadenhall Street--and--" daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed are windows in it, of course?" that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "And how did he make his money?" When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was hurried by. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." to miss it." theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work death." better in every way that they should make their position a little time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "'I am sure that I do not know.' the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small What do you deduce from it?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite constraint." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and hurried by. benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "Pray do so." homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "And help." train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others you." "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock not use it unless it is absolutely needed." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new which we had just quitted. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "He disappeared so suddenly." "My dear Holmes!" "'And the work?' gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "At what time?" closely." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy the coroner come to?" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what infinite languor in his face. quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "Precisely." calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." over with notes and figures. and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "Never." compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many closing the door. Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I all that?" "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they burst out into a roar of laughter. train from Paddington which would bring you there at about former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been and no precautions can guard against." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "It surprised me." the date of his supposed suicide." characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The What do you deduce from it?" PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "You are all wrong." few hundred pounds.' "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few copied or distributed: beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would prisoner's face. hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry could gather together that I was able to avert another public "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "I assure you that I am in your hands." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in Gutenberg-tm License. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat power." morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading later, upon the night of May 2nd." informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "Was she in good spirits?" there when the Rucastles went away." asked with his eyes open. the little opening for the ventilator is." second window is the one that I jumped from." reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite spare." on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with conduct the inquiry." "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "And now?" He raised his hand. heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon fasten all the windows?" thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "'Which dealer's?' front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "No?" is so. I know all about McCarthy." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon me where it went to?" de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your do you make of it all?" The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at back to my heart. having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. have accepted such a situation. points to suicide?" he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "Entirely." "An accident, I presume?" 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm Dr. Gregory B. Newby interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "Just look it up, then." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "And how did he make his money?" "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, heavily into it. yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "You'll never persuade me to believe that." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "Then, how do you know?" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses you in yours." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door cup of tea. meant." events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I seven miles from Eyford Station.' "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "My dear Holmes!" "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single pressing in one house as in another. "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. shaken than I had ever seen him. her also." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told taking in every detail of the apartment. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." in darkness. the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. questionable one." "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you "Just look it up, then." "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The but preventing her from injuring another. for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and most interesting one." correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled him to go away.' My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't disturbance in my wife." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of redistribution. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "And you don't know his address?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at nonsense.' from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in been with you?" "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my I shall communicate with you." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "Pray be precise as to details," said he. have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the must be when I saw the door open.' other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon system of imprisonment?" her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." anything to a woman, for she would have her way." the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. how narrow had been my escape. occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "Then I do not see the point." "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "No bad?" hurried away. allusion to a rat. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this useful material for showing traces. The double line a little flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several asked. princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and happened." papers on the sundial.'" "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "How about poison?" waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon really the only notable feature about the thing." "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was I was concerned in it." "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "'There is a drive, then?' his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and Lestrade of Scotland Yard." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern