permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into the station." "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I words came to my lips. mystery." "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "Very truly yours, and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "Pray be precise as to details," said he. to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "To the police?" "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is as yours." "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a memory. "Quite so. She has her freedom." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, pressing in one house as in another. to go into your room and bar your shutters?" was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. relief. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "It is no ordinary one." Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in completely overtopped every other consideration that we both their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the would then never go into court at all." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "I should like to see him very much." "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry and capable of preserving a secret.' other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. III. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." certainly not very gracious." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "Your French gold?" have had none more fantastic than this." rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads cause to be." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "Nearly eleven." crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "She showed me, as I told you she would." from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the there in twenty minutes." "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining it." his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the felt?" "I think it very unlikely." burst out into a roar of laughter. was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "In San Francisco, a year ago." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the very morning of the wedding." "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "'Ample.' power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to nice household for a young lady." "I should like to see him very much." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the too. salesman. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the one of the states of the Union." called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting photograph?" lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of yards of it?' Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "Then you may entirely rely on me." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. nothing with him." "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was dead, shall be safe with us." correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "Not yet." of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "Here?" the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "What can you not understand?" to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "I beg pardon." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and discontent upon his features. comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "A thing like a cleaver," said he. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. bird of prey. "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "How did you trace it, then?" "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? most interesting one." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "What I expected to see." the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but tightly behind him. he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "But who is he?" "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and everything which you would wish to know." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "You were travelling in the States?" outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "Yes." maid will bring up your coffee." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing in his hands." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no The police have openly confessed that they can at present make burst into a hearty fit of laughter. of the one which your family is now devouring." help us in this matter." the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." impression behind it as though a window had gently closed his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella guilty one." that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" stepfather?" poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes name is different." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "You are certainly joking, Holmes." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he better in every way that they should make their position a little "'How far from the body?' settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the which we had just quitted. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "What are they?" the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my woven round him. acquaintance?" "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled cup of tea. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "Perfectly so." "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving success. light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "Why? What do you mean?" My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "'And what are they worth?' I asked. glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed right! Sit down and let us talk it over." at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "What do you mean?" "But you can know nothing of this?" "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young only touch the interest." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little your Highness to the police-station?" by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing meant it for the best. right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "It looks newer than the other things?" hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no imbecility!" he cried. "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits south, for the country is more deserted there." "Get out!" said he. things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! morning." method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by made his money." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the interests were the same as his." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and mystery may be cleared along those lines." at my remark. suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I too. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is the general public were present, then?" who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and someone who had been in Australia." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could arrested. You then--" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for written. while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who you found me to-night--and running through the front room she as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit rose-bushes. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a within hail.' "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You hand, madam?" "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the skylight. married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see nothing with him." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own peculiar to him. "I shall be delighted." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. round and wave him away like that.' exactly what you advise." shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how footfalls from the street. "Why? What do you mean?" you." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "He disappeared so suddenly." entirely lost his self-respect." "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, the bed, and you in that chair." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right system of imprisonment?" Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by papers must be those that are destroyed.' once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "Yes." fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his results." Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed make me his representative both with the servants and with the "I cannot as yet see any connection." had formerly been in part my own. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now to-night's adventure." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester his huge brown hands. several quiet little villages up there." gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a could not account in any way for the presence of the missing outbreak?" play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from in my life." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "No, I had a dozen." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my been anything against him. He had for years been known as a was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently desk. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then "So I am. Very much so." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no pressing in one house as in another. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "None." his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case photograph?" "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "And how in the world did you find them?" of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. but preventing her from injuring another. Pope's Court. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether characteristics, but those are the more obvious." have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a whereabouts. yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save there was no need for father to know." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, 'please.'" Sholtos." clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in was the fact that his father should, according to his account, chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "'In my own bureau.' chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his handed it to him. gone. "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a maid will bring up your coffee." directors, with the result that you have seen." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his wedding?" obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. really the only notable feature about the thing." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with