"A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "'What do you call purely nominal?' entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a Gutenberg-tm License. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "One horse?" interjected Holmes. stalked out of the room. going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. floor. "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I and I shall be with you presently." "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. second." "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should this Miss Turner." excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a persecution?" its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been humiliation." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for the inquest, and which are worth considering." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up me. You must get home instantly and act." and inquire as to the address." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of golden eyeglasses. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate a suggestive one." which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each that I may have something better before very many minutes are incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "I don't believe it." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days deduce something from that?" aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "I promise," said Holmes. livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "Was your sister dressed?" "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed the matter." "He said too much." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A Farm upon the left." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "Not particularly." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still best detective that ever lived. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "What! Had he lost his wife?" over his head with a sweet womanly caress. we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "Yes?" and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we be there in time for your coming." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in now. It seems that there had been some informality about their must be when I saw the door open.' "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "You horrify me!" distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "She told me to ask you." this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one client, rising. conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were even so self-evident a thing as that." were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work written. before the coroner and the police-court." weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "It looks newer than the other things?" one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for and wait." I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and to that open window." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up since then to throw any light upon what became of him." he died? my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "You think that he is dead?" was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against attention." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the any little problem which you may submit to me." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and husband's writing, madam." We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "'And what are they worth?' I asked. tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the depend upon your compliance." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips his fortune, and I went back to pa. Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "In the cells." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled if I call to-morrow?" "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business see me here to avoid scandal." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some such attractions and accomplishments?' anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" this remarkable episode. have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "Awake, Watson?" he asked. window when the police appeared." on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson visitors." "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "The best possible." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the yards of it?' My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "Then how many are there?" Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an Gutenberg-tm License. "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save have established a very serious case against the son of the "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "'In my own bureau.' again on its way. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "Where, then?" you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. from you?" you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "'As governess?' http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg conceal it?" a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." generous with you in money matters.' "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an key turn in the lock." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of to a more successful conclusion." explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted ashen face. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when bachelor.' "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may drawing your inferences." "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" in a friendly supper." shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "By train from Waterloo." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he photograph?" "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without may never be exposed to such a temptation." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few the matter." reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical interests were the same as his." weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "Proceed, then." "'What, the red-headed man?' "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "Yes, at the mines." thirty. and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." introspective fashion. connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, over with notes and figures. "It is no ordinary one." assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic to tell." sentimental considerations in the background which would induce have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "So I am. Very much so." and inquire as to the address." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always tell him that I know him to be innocent." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "No more words. Get out!" are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, always that they were such commands as a lady might with in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped seem to you to be relevant or not." "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "Whose house is it?" with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "'And what salary do you ask?' something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the the ceiling. the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the Miss Holder?" direction." were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "The decline of his fortunes, then?" withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. conclusions. saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' written, and locked the door of the office after me. may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "It is to him that this trophy belongs." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a eat it." here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear of them has the shutters up.' half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure his knees, staring into the fire. smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "Proceed, then." "I cannot say that I have." "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom stood on the top of it. British peeress.'" more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was back alive. becomes even more simple." The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood me. You must get home instantly and act." "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his For additional contact information: gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "You'll never persuade me to believe that." public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining he died? closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project cup of tea. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, as this. Pray let me have the details." unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my row." fasten all the windows?" "And how did you verify them?" whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "No." round with crates and massive boxes. a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest indeed happy." have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "'And the work?' "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing me have 200 pounds?' "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "It goes to the housekeeper's room." It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "And who is her maid?" "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but your troubles." colonel looking down at me. to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From Literary Archive Foundation the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but 11:15.' for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some during that time.' threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off Countess of Morcar's?" "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of forehead. own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his depend upon my doing so.' light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to like that before?" And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That had a long day." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I possible that we could bring him back to her? "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside