populous neighbourhood." "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a she might be summoned. to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps again." o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was stammered. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "You don't mind breaking the law?" his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of which it had come upon my father." "In San Francisco, a year ago." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "Nothing?" beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation weighed down with some great anxiety. value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such them?" "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "I fear not." quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "And for present expenses?" "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking little trying to do so much typewriting?" pierced for earrings?" At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this I held the little printed slip to the light. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "It's nothing of the kind." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a like that before?" the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "Where, then, is my wife?" of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is weapon." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on pressing in one house as in another. beyond words. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet deduce something from that?" whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "What do you make of that, Watson?" drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the without a word or a look. young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "Could he throw no light?" which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was it." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "Well, it is a possible supposition." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "At the wedding breakfast." "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "Witness: Nothing definite. to tackle the facts." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? Farm upon the left." the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this papers diligently of late, have you not?" find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and crowd. rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" over here." in the dead of the night?' to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Where is it, then?" other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "To the police?" but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. my friend's incisive reasoning. impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make woman who has had her own way to make in the world. towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB status with the IRS. who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a be.' throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we tell them apart.' that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." certainly do as you advise." wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' in a friendly supper." journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very touch that coronet?' people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, narrative." However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I in the hope of finding them." some terrible trap for her." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty system of imprisonment?" do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle Countess of Morcar's?" matter." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will "Yes." "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his silent! Oh, he will be silent!' your Highness to the police-station?" flock.' aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger I leave." forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a have established a very serious case against the son of the could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever that you wished to speak to me?' "'Yes.' and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of little trying to do so much typewriting?" bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the existence." was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a papers on the sundial.'" again before evening." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project burst into a hearty fit of laughter. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "And you can do nothing until then?" started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "The best possible." clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "An accident, I presume?" for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That said he at last. his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "The vanishing of the lady." your equipment. of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "And the murderer?" "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to sound at heart." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the could not account in any way for the presence of the missing occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "So I have heard." flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "Were they all fastened this morning?" disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." when your master had gone out." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage bedroom door." ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down maid will bring up your coffee." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "To the police?" "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "'Yes, I promise.' the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "Never." with you alone." "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "No." society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "I will not look." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the do you make of it all?" them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' more solid." who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would tightly behind him. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, them?" I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "I am armed." notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of from you?" near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." the roots. "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" his grey eyes. note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town never came back." copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The business?" qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I Holmes. went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the Young McCarthy must be got off, however." written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring and the colonel ushered me in. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and pierced for earrings?" the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "What is it?" description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "How did he come?" handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "And I to find an enemy." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in the coronet at all injured?" them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "Pray tell us what has happened to you." whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "Oh, yes, easily." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. and laid it on the table. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in You want to know what became of those geese?" might have a private word with us. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and several quiet little villages up there." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all you understand?" possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police events than those which have happened in my own family." postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "And you don't know his address?" sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it she has been waylaid. There has been no result." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way hands. "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "I came to find a friend." a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against I held the little printed slip to the light. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "'And the work?' stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. manager. "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of she used." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned man. I know him from the photograph." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the was keenly on my guard against him. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this helping a boy to put up the shutters. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a chambers. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and troubles have been weighing upon his mind. posted to-day." swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "Quite so. She has her freedom." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, families. Now for the facts. the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover entirely devoid of interest." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known ways including including checks, online payments and credit card events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "I will, Miss Turner." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit imbecility!" he cried. "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of attention." "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have