"And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "Of what day?" was not a bird to be seen there. noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and companion. those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "And is that all?" "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "And now?" I asked. His name is Francis Prosper." closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." kindly on the shoulder. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that a very grave face. fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, your troubles." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "It is very kind of you." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "No sign of it?" habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between writer." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that the general public were present, then?" "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who guilty parties." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "Deserted you?" better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would wanted for ourselves." "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who gigantic client. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has that I am arrested." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the prove to be little relation between the different incidents of that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank discontent upon his features. time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream is four-and-twenty." highroad, where all traces were lost. answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "How are you getting on?" as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one thin, with a long, sharp nose?" entirely devoid of interest." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have jewels which you have stolen?' time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty jewels which you have stolen?' '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his amused." street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." address. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon awaited us upon the table. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and nice household for a young lady." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped his knees, staring into the fire. peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "I cannot imagine." the armchair which I pushed forward for him. fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would you understand?" "That is easily got." the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The forehead. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the a room. "On Monday." this Miss Turner." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "Not I." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew she has been waylaid. There has been no result." into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "He is dead," cried several voices. "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any room had already been engaged for us. most interesting one." "'Entirely.' "I know where it is." McCarthy's innocence. four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of you for a few hours?" Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards name is different." Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "'Where to?' month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the held up the lantern and gazed about him. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the could not have written that. It is the German who is so of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I occupations.' he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help works. See paragraph 1.E below. have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the I think that I could be of assistance to you." "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have room had already been engaged for us. the inquest, and which are worth considering." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream The King stared at him in amazement. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any clanging. age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "Oh, the cause is excellent!" this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded directors, with the result that you have seen." "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will relation between them, and what the object of his repeated will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." seen the man in the road." almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of Sutherland. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Upon what point?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "The doctor?" "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "And the cigar-holder?" country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." Where does the thing come from?' seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "'And the work?' and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the in darkness. "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in Holmes' face clouded over. you do it in twenty minutes!' "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "I have seen the police." possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he individual and becomes the badge of a society." looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to daring than any effort of the imagination." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, forbidden door. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the subject to the trademark license, especially commercial caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. grasp, he hurried from the room. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "We must sit without light. He would see it through the very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign closely." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "That is easily got." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Very. But will he see it?" "Was she in good spirits?" saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. to a light-house. there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "Certainly." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "Nothing?" could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "It is no ordinary one." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to your billet.' stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was off." Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "Two days later this same performance was gone through under princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side an introduction to him?" "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman seem to you to be relevant or not." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "How can you tell that?" fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' young Openshaw's." hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." interested in these little problems, and since you are good "Then I can wait in the next room." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful the night.' "I beg pardon." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "'I have already given you my word.' "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "May I see it?" that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up in my life." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in the inner apartment." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. Gutenberg-tm License. salesman. I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was strode off upon his way. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "I am armed." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "What then?" before, for it was considerably after midnight. "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "9th. McCauley cleared. child?' nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my her also." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent new duties?' "I see no marks." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope copied or distributed: despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our you came in." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he mystery." "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the detained." case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door more solid." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "I cannot tell." regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I train.' that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was gone. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. he bowed and left the room without another word. enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to Mrs. Toller serenely. so far?" has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense James Windibank. Voilà tout!" the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones gigantic client. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a out." railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must Mrs. Toller serenely. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy purpose equally well?" speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "Won't it ring?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself strode off upon his way. stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up will not take me long to tell. them?" "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining noble correspondent could be. envelope. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "And how did you find out?" I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual little adventures." wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his Holmes. them, and came down just as you departed. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "No." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to information in his hands the value of which he did not himself my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "Nearly eleven." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I said he. of them has the shutters up.' property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" things are very often connected not with the larger but with the informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not It was close upon four before the door opened, and a fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His redistribution. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." cup of tea. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect grasp, he hurried from the room. colonel looking down at me. It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent call for protection in the marriage market, for the present adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." in his hands." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad kindly on the shoulder. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "At what time?" august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the here." companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the