jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I is," said he presently: same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall flock.' Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united American. Then who could this American be, and why should he was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may shall not find me ungrateful." drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes prove to be little relation between the different incidents of did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "How do you know, then?" his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You tapping his fingers upon the table. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the away into the river." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want you." asked. "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would of fine shops and stately business premises that they really friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot horse could go." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "Was your sister dressed?" the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in several quiet little villages up there." skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "And I to find an enemy." I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help least a most suspicious remark." air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "You are certainly joking, Holmes." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut highly," said Holmes. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's in a friendly supper." yards of it?' effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which with you alone." shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of garden below. province." fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of within hail.' "Here?" now. It seems that there had been some informality about their better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of fattened it expressly for you.' police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from have one." my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of it." DAMAGE. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "Yes, sir." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "Very murderous indeed." wedding?" any little problem which you may submit to me." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to will not take me long to tell. "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "I was mad--insane." of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "Very well, sir. And this stone?" until night should bring an explanation. really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "And from a noble client?" hands. the armchair which I pushed forward for him. handed it to him. to me. me. You must get home instantly and act." Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I mysterious end." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to strange features which were associated with the two crimes which Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more note?" it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: since then to throw any light upon what became of him." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they there." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted woman." "No more words. Get out!" to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, present." his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it enter Dr. Roylott's room." do.' "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or unclasping of his long thin hands. and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in at my remark. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the union?" grasp, he hurried from the room. skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I formed some opinion?" an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, tension within him. and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "I think it very unlikely." "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before case before our client came into the room." trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and head. So long, then!" on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "Very truly yours, would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined writing, and yet I know it well." was already answered. Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning business." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in with frightened eyes at his accuser. took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their prison!" that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police bonnet, and went out." to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted that I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "Imitated." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my whole matter to your consideration." - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on she slowly sank and died without having recovered her possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's the side-table." January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Not yet." had this final quarrel? expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "I see many objections to any such theory." compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a charged with?" address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. cigar and let me expound." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "And the murderer?" myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." these bleak autumnal evenings." found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to lamp in his hand. said he at last. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "What can you not understand?" myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no already referred to. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She society." the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly I took the paper from him and read as follows: woven round him. whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again of the efforts of the United States government and of the better and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "I shall most certainly do so." pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the with you?" particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside The summons was a brief and urgent one. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you Project Gutenberg-tm works. violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, minor matters until to-morrow." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. approach us with offers to donate. it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the of this gang." ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. name is different." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "I think it very unlikely." sake, don't!" upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "'Yes, I promise.' thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which the bottom.' "An enemy?" little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the nice household for a young lady." "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of I shall communicate with you." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from the coronet in his hand?" "Yes, I have one waiting." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "Yes, only one." the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I gigantic client. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a power." again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally in the hope of finding them." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that points to suicide?" it were putty." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "And how did he make his money?" "But she could not love him." and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods and all of them with the keenest interest. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying it." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Never to return." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "And how did you verify them?" "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his it. there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I do.' Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do conduct the inquiry." "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it chance." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were Surrey." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "Whose house is it?" "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months affair. "Look there!" said he. experiences." police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. bearing upon the case." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To the armchair which I pushed forward for him. stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and business in the City. She little knew what. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "Perhaps we may make them less so." slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had your equipment. "I have a cab outside." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag