coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "Quite so. She has her freedom." "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and occupations.' "'How far from the body?' with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had other, as fresh and trim as possible. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit characteristics, but those are the more obvious." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts them present such singular features as the strange train of only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some you want, then?' "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see rooms." my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you pound a week." had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should sneer upon his pale face. "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, individual and becomes the badge of a society." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, the morning and make my own way in the world.' with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "Yes?" keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project strength." "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential skylight. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "Was he the only applicant?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "And why in hopes?" "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "One horse?" interjected Holmes. the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "My stepfather's business papers." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "Texas, I think." in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were the address that was given us in the advertisement. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very when you have done it." only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to would then never go into court at all." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the been." the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his colonel looking down at me. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "That is possible." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with happened." outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis wall." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs notes," he said. plantation.' strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the note?" buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "One horse?" interjected Holmes. It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "'Where could I find him?' problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed yet." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of him and tried to hold him back. "And Irene Adler?" course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Yes, sir." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "I will try. What is it?" "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "My own seal." willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Where did you address your letters, then?" knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "A confidential servant?" "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall crackling voice. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." was keenly on my guard against him. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion to go into your room and bar your shutters?" was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his was keenly on my guard against him. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose interest. They are important, you understand, without being were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" lectures into a series of tales." very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "It is very clear." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Then the page we have seen--" There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as more solid." I held the little printed slip to the light. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "'Entirely.' "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "But you were on a friendly footing?" entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, the best of training." compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "You have but to name it." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "Always." the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his note?" moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "It is a murder, then?" "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "Your presence might be invaluable." moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "Then what has happened to him?" "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "Quite so." answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "He slept on the premises." make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "'Entirely.' half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "You were travelling in the States?" well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern where we are going." had formerly been in part my own. was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a will be renamed. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's allusion to a rat. "And that is--" an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "And I to find an enemy." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a it." back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if companion imperturbably. with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without a monotonous occupation." severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "Look there!" said he. very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us on re-entering her father's house?" of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a until night should bring an explanation. authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's back to my heart. "My dear Holmes!" silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the your only hope of safety." I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this helping a boy to put up the shutters. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should late!' word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "Won't it ring?" and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. chance at all." appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at furiously. Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where feature." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when key of the affair now." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong delirious. and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has Watson," he said cordially. a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and despaired of." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray woman." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "I am armed." Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "He is still with you, I presume?" perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "I am in hopes that she does." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "And what did you see?" return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "It must be recovered." "Not particularly." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat of note-paper. It read in this fashion: shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "Then I shall certainly come." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which upon the shelf for the interim." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. placed his cuttings. us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger room. "Very truly yours, family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "It is solved." a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which with frightened eyes at his accuser. "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should certainly do as you advise." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" your only hope of safety." She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "Then I shall certainly come." have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "Entirely." with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "Not in the least." and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting "Why serious?" them present such singular features as the strange train of say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the there is a decided draught." hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. depend upon my doing so.' "Yes." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From sufficient punishment." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." chair. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, once more. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so wedding?" time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to forehead. IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your derbies." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my and glanced through. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "Your French gold?" thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the will find little credit to be gained out of this case." the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit some water from a caraffe. farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "I think that it is very probable." "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project speckled band?" good-night and bustled off upon her way. "Did you become engaged then?" skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!"