"Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to followed. "A thing like a cleaver," said he. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the during that time.' to tell." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time certainly not very gracious." "And now?" He raised his hand. glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "But who is he?" IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the rooms." pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "How on earth--" conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would individual and becomes the badge of a society." a monotonous occupation." lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for indiscretion." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' place, I think that there is good ground to think that the again." more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "And how did he make his money?" and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "The doctor?" thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Then, as to money?" exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this Sutherland. tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock matters immensely." I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my my room." said I. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "What?" we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "But you were on a friendly footing?" America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it photograph?" done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I round and wave him away like that.' begun to whiten, even as mine has." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up fact, we may call it conclusive." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his enter Dr. Roylott's room." opportunities to fix the problem. "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old galvanised. "You will not go there first?" "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "'I am sure that I do not know.' had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "I assure you that I am in your hands." his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "None." gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the ventilator." went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary hardly wander." violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of Leadenhall Street--and--" convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. it." "Where, then?" servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "No bad?" particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "Yes." opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that obstinate." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: held up the lantern and gazed about him. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his despaired of." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my papers on the sundial.'" "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. forbidden door. and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "I am all attention, madam." controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "I shall be delighted." on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would not come at once?" this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that my secret was safe in his possession. tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "You are hungry," I remarked. building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second again." "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "An enemy?" the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the From what you have told me I think that it is possible that myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was as noiselessly as she had come. judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "Precisely so. But how--" was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the situation." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "Well?" before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Pray tell us what has happened to you." completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "She walked into the breakfast-room." had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing was a loud and authoritative tap. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered his forehead." for its centre. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." confronted him. feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" carried out of court." patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to seen the man in the road." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "Did you become engaged then?" home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first have not had my rubber." and prosperity to your house. Good-night." suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "And now?" He raised his hand. massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. during the last few years, and there are many noble families to hurried by. "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." The telegram which we eventually received came late one night work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in one of the states of the Union." certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "I am sure." number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity for the market.' "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must the window, rose as we entered. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a tell me that you intended to go into harness." graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "I am about to be married." "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. which we had just quitted. in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest to-night?' beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to the coronet in his hand?" "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes bare slabs of marble. think you a quite exceptional woman." better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "What can it mean?" I gasped. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I down. overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. me what he had done with the three missing stones. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "Come in!" said he. refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your key of the affair now." staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had Leave Paddington by the 11:15." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my the roots. woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that "Which surely he restored to their owner?" be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want washing it down with a long draught of water. "The vanishing of the lady." You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT writers could invent nothing more crude." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which important." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little coat-tails." "Why serious?" the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies signal between you and your father? "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his definite end. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "But she could not love him." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "That was it, sir." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, chamber." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting shaken than I had ever seen him. pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" arrested. You then--" would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a will not take me long to tell. evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "Well, but China?" home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Will you go?" "You don't mind breaking the law?" doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "I cannot tell." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk our word." "I should like to see him very much." "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her fatally injured? "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "Nothing." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we business came to an end." his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his questionable one." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "And how in the world did you find them?" McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the lectures into a series of tales." "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position DISSOLVED. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the affair. roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "Certainly." five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it brain must have something in it." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was there were one or two details which were new to me. But the out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "Come in!" said he. remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! acquaintance?" Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had flock.' Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "'And what salary do you ask?' "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "A confidential servant?" their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while fatally injured? "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the