suggested at once that there must be a communication between the standing smiling on the door-step. maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or so far?" our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off people don't know." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so crackling voice. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ signal between you and your father? see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we keep the flames under. visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the waste of energy." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who derbies." "No legal papers or certificates?" hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a before the coroner and the police-court." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "You think that he is dead?" "How about poison?" and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I that the gas is not laid on in his house?" excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "What then?" "'Entirely.' revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the furiously. us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling a very grave face. the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted himself to tell his story. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: companion. "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second during that time.' a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "'I am sure that I do not know.' you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you I took the paper from him and read as follows: "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his McCarthy." returning from some small jollification and was making his way providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though Sutherland?" for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign woman." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, brandy and water within his reach. in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." as yours." "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel answered with a sidelong glance. "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "But his left-handedness." lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "No. His orders were to stay in the house." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "Why, it's a dummy," said he. Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them invisible to me," I remarked. observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold paper in the air. grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the wall." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." cost them two and thirty pounds." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "It is his hat." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very Pope's Court. "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I the very morning of the wedding." again." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "Yes, it was twisted." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. way in everything. You want to know what became of those geese?" Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "Game for a morning drive?" and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." your sleep?' "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Nothing." One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "A confidential servant?" you do it in twenty minutes!' in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from disappearance of the bride.'" drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "Stolen, then." "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Indeed! Whose, then?" not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all mystery may be cleared along those lines." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." I took the paper from him and read as follows: "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney young Openshaw's." where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, My friend smiled. and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent mystery!" "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "Did your wife hear all this?" "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, depend upon your compliance." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are what is your own theory as to what took place?" I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "Why did you beat the pavement?" "You don't mind breaking the law?" "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "That is easily got." into the bag, and made for the door. over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving passage and a tap at the door. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his sufficient punishment." Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he is acting for the best. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and one or two very singular points about this room. For example, tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey before the coroner and the police-court." had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The pressing in one house as in another. however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the least a fellow-countryman. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "Why, it's a dummy," said he. space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were experiences." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a Heh?' Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is very peculiar words of the dying woman?" conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "Whose house is it?" electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to ceremony." would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "'Is purely nominal.' "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "But you have hopes?" I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "It is half-past ten now." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Cross for the Continent." my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open awkward doing business with an alias." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was success. "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Yes." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock have been better. It is all right." father's place of business?" Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "I have a cab outside." the dangers which encompass me." happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington shoulder. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is Munro.' "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a forbidden door. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey has little to do with my story." The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. reach." name is different." "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: your co-operation." Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "Imitated." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "And why?" you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that been able to understand it, in a very few words. "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." at home. straightened it out again. lumber-room." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide strength." call it cruel." held up the lantern and gazed about him. He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Your sister is dead, then?" Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, examination of the premises, but without finding anything which and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged tassel actually lying upon the pillow. came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, fashion which was peculiar to him. more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much because she had spent so short a time in this country that she square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my furiously. Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way morning." "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, villagers almost as much as their master. "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "How do you know, then?" including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Yes." one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification him and tried to hold him back. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is annoyance, but no jest. such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for look upon these things in a different way." the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "And you don't know his address?" reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the remarked. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about observed. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "I saw her in conversation with her maid." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new it with his own hands." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such hereditary King of Bohemia." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and writer." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It miles off. as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, your room." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number