to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the whole matter to your consideration." "I have seen the police." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "There is the writing." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. felt?" you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any in a very precise fashion." character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was papers on the sundial.'" all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "Which surely he restored to their owner?" fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by habit of advancing money.' went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "A call for help, you thought?" with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "'I am sure that I do not know.' fact, we may call it conclusive." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more you found me to-night--and running through the front room she to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider bore every mark of being an average commonplace British feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers acquaintance?" "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, The telegram which we eventually received came late one night King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his with you?" said I. last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter What do you deduce from it?" The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. six. Come in!" ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "So I heard. You have him here?" pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "That sounds a little paradoxical." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "Of what?" did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my again on its way. "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch the best of training." "You think so, too?" is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." tail." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I he bowed and left the room without another word. good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "Witness: It was. "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "I say that I have solved it." Holmes' room. that there was nothing in it, after all." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he too. "My last client of the sort was a king." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." of." electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended off." remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." indiscretion." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining beg that you will break it off." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could lamp in his hand. request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "And from a noble client?" swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the in his power. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "Not particularly." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "I cannot as yet see any connection." brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "And how did he make his money?" "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked him nearly every evening." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was woman." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He and have this put in the evening papers." them present such singular features as the strange train of "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "'What, the red-headed man?' my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the weary and pale-looking. "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, when you have done it." "'How far from the body?' You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of humiliation." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should and put his glass in his pocket. Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it heavy and sharp instrument." gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "We must sit without light. He would see it through the visitors." heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "'Never.' "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend security.' be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, shadow pass over his face as I spoke. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. might have a private word with us. answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the spark where all is dark to me." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start will find little credit to be gained out of this case." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He future lives." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "Yes." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." standing smiling on the door-step. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then straightened it out again. hour." "And is that all?" happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "'Stolen!' he cried. "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, miles off. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess best detective that ever lived. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "I was sure that I might rely on you." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. train.' "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT prove to be little relation between the different incidents of met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly never came back." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled only touch the interest." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "Yes." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he Young McCarthy must be got off, however." only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A begun to whiten, even as mine has." said he. back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson said he. the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the the matter." up this clue while it is still hot." real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "And on what day did he meet his death?" if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "That is possible." before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went me, and I could not think that his explanation of the dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "What office?" helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "It is half-past ten now." "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed recall any case within my experience which looked at the first is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her fatally injured? wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "That's no good." "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming hands. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, and I shall be with you presently." go from here to the Strand." The King stared at him in amazement. your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "Yes, I have one waiting." highly," said Holmes. seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "But it has twice been burgled." allusion to a rat. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. strength in the others." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had cigars in the box." the little opening for the ventilator is." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the visitors." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when official police." and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "And Miss Sutherland?" I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "Who was the criminal, then?" "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do strong and stiff." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "And you thought he was pulled back?" He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "Nothing?" "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez she used." "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these then?" upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is I was concerned in it." points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not to tackle the facts." very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "But what will you do?" my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his get the tickets." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." to where he stood hid behind the curtain. It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. and no precautions can guard against." the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found "Perfectly so." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil towards the blaze. the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains colour had been driven from his face. reach." affair. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." Arthur Conan Doyle "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help a very grave face. "'Is purely nominal.' how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he your equipment. British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "Not particularly." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "Yes." wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing it were putty." high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help chair. all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "So I am. Very much so." definite end. "But what harm can there be in that?" have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "I think that I had better go, Holmes." police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the then?" What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "Proceed, then." which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "Which surely he restored to their owner?" returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the over his head with a sweet womanly caress. my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which to-night's adventure." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "Texas, I think." demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' strode off upon his way. some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "Not I." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, experiences." until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on humiliation." outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a were new raised from a basin. letters?" are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now leaning back in his chair. thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have new duties?' knowledge of the world." plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "And help." locked." will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird as this. Pray let me have the details." "From his hat?"