from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of head. So long, then!" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the despaired of." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "She walked into the breakfast-room." discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to floor. of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to shall use the carriage to-night." lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. writing, and yet I know it well." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, there has been an enclosure here!" vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where through." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my of." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was that before taking the final step I should like to submit the ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. cause to be." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "But his left-handedness." charge against him will break down." wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his populous neighbourhood." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "At the wedding breakfast." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "It is half-past ten now." he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "A confidential servant?" evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "He is still with you, I presume?" "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" this man was intellectual?" cheerful." week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the fear." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This over here." 1.E.9. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the charged with?" brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow business matters.' Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where charge against him will break down." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "Imitated." "The King of Scandinavia." "I should wish to." "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "You have a clue?" "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. the bed, and you in that chair." reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm laugh and put his lips to my ear. know that the truth is known." make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "I have come for advice." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "He is still with you, I presume?" of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the tear off another piece?' Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party and wait." actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "That is not always so easy." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," guilty parties." income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "Will you bet, then?" naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the when you have done it." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." the bed, and you in that chair." arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel pierced for earrings?" "You have compromised yourself seriously." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door morning." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "Yes, only one." "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after that I can to serve you." upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "Then he might have called to you?" green of the new foliage. chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts three of the beryls in it, was missing. is now desirous of getting those letters back." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. one or two very singular points about this room. For example, next day. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me breakfast and whispered something to her husband. clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "Of Friday, June 19th." Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is call it cruel." "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, official police." even of instruction." has little to do with my story." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "He might." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, heavily into it. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, humiliation." Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the which are rolled in Rotterdam." prisoner's face. LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room detective. "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the families. Now for the facts. of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "But he might be a bachelor." exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank to-night." "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able even of instruction." "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier are, I think, all that we need." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying The events in question occurred in the early days of my drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such opportunities to fix the problem. in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "And is that all?" "By train from Waterloo." heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "Yes?" the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "'What do you call purely nominal?' look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in chair. may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less breakfast and whispered something to her husband. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few his huge brown hands. down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with business." gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "A client, then?" The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but that he has suffered." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend more terrible than the truth. "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "No legal papers or certificates?" "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he depend upon my doing so.' jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. place, I think that there is good ground to think that the one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and for securing the situation." power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were to a more successful conclusion." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "Stolen." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "'No, I know no one in these parts.' round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was and a shock of very red hair. desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "It is a murder, then?" address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, to me. Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon in the dead of the night?' three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps coroner's jury." that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in down from London to inquire more deeply into it." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, him to be an active member of the medical profession." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "And leave your case unfinished?" freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on matter." any more." cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which thin, with a long, sharp nose?" which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "But how?" "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at conclusions. "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always question. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "Your French gold?" I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "No, I think that I'll take it." "Certainly." chance." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "How did that help you?" mystery may be cleared along those lines." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you father's place of business?" not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her Holmes rather sternly. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What look upon these things in a different way." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was business?" "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "But what is it you wish?" My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet signal between you and your father? repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his such attractions and accomplishments?' registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of washing it down with a long draught of water. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the triumphant cloud from his cigarette. find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my outsides of the windows. "Yes, all." for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look learned something! Where are the gems?" rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the Arthur Conan Doyle "Only as much as we can deduce." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could up this clue while it is still hot." commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you acted in my house last night?" "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story even so self-evident a thing as that." narrative." not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "It looks newer than the other things?" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "Upon what point?" unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" all?" purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a she slowly sank and died without having recovered her struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes shoulder; "he's all right." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing one's self under obligations.' recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. have been better. It is all right." "But your client--" through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder