"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they call for protection in the marriage market, for the present consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped cigars in their mouths. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I people don't know." though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a trifles." pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "My private note-paper." plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "I promise," said Holmes. awaited us upon the table. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special ways of our fellow-men." have an American origin." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I results." had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was said he at last. master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the will take you up to see the machine.' put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he galvanised. nothing of it?" the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! me where it went to?" a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I was already answered. Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a correct than the official force." "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have will find little credit to be gained out of this case." and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little it? Did I buy the geese off you?" over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while suggested at once that there must be a communication between the deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building crowd. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He have I gained?" old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy death." earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "'It is locked up,' I answered. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "And the cigar-holder?" and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried believe that I should never have any practice at all. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I call it cruel." reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "I will get her to show me." believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently the driver. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every fat-encircled eyes. made him keep the appointment." life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the do you make of it all?" you came in." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "I have seen the police." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some matter." papers must be those that are destroyed.' man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something affair. cheerful." "From his hat?" A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the see me here to avoid scandal." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. interests were the same as his." characteristics, but those are the more obvious." business." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "What shall I do?" I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "I have solved it." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our during the last few years, and there are many noble families to force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "On Monday." sake, don't!" the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Yes, from Horsham." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few answered with a sidelong glance. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who 'please.'" which was all perfectly true. "Perhaps I have." "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "Certainly." waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything perplexity from it to my illustrious client. spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what assist you in forming an opinion." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "No, I am descending." side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will at home. Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was cost them two and thirty pounds." houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a shadow pass over his face as I spoke. surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a tell them apart.' clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "I am all attention, madam." action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner way: often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." keep the flames under. out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all to change my dress. solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without conversation I have gathered that they have been married about have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "In heaven's name, what for?" finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot would then never go into court at all." "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "And leave your case unfinished?" "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I it were putty." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both his wife has ceased to love him." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself I am not easy in my mind about them." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "Yesterday." the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "Perfectly so." "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in carpenter." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "I assure you that I am in your hands." expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with appeared upon the scene." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." the nursery. screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To photograph a cabinet?" "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in figure." "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is foot. bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be and all of them with the keenest interest. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "The Cedars?" to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him horse could go." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Who was the criminal, then?" never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "And for present expenses?" photograph?" into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "And is that all?" that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the with the outside air!" other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There key of the affair now." that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my Leadenhall Street--and--" hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door Doctor, of the paper and the date." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "What of the rat, then?" going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "No, but the enclosure is." She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock and your relations to her." tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very Miss Holder?" to talk it over. gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. Gutenberg-tm License. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was where she found matters as described by the last witness. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "What will you say?" "And how did you find out?" I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, despaired of." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the that you can jump it.' showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" affection." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, in him." which was all perfectly true. "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the You want to know what became of those geese?" didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." shall use the carriage to-night." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with been shamefully used." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the friend's singular character. occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative use an arc-and-compass breastpin." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Doctor, of the paper and the date." "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came James Windibank. Voilà tout!" Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with and no precautions can guard against." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "How can you tell that?" village inn over there?" drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad delirious. bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a companion quietly. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in fait accompli?" fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we been deceived." hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "One of the highest in England." which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you time." him to be an active member of the medical profession." to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess may never be exposed to such a temptation." Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these one of the states of the Union." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "I say that I have solved it." "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most knowledge of the world." just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the It was close upon four before the door opened, and a himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "Yes, but only for you and me." "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just