above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant cost them two and thirty pounds." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the chemical work which was so dear to him. "We must sit without light. He would see it through the the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must already been minutely examined." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "'How far from the body?' wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of I leave." "The rest you will leave in our hands." interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the over his head with a sweet womanly caress. confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute really the only notable feature about the thing." "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I that I am arrested." A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid upon the white wrist. the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and answer." Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking so far?" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. call the police, let the police find what they can.' did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your you." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, advice." absolutely follow my advice in every respect." for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that way in everything. every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "'No, I know no one in these parts.' round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, information in his hands the value of which he did not himself very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "Two days later this same performance was gone through under upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall the station." "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive this poor creature." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "It was a confession," I ejaculated. Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. persecution?" terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "I warn you that they are very incomplete." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom gbnewby@pglaf.org the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "One of his hands." had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "Certainly." to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which charged with?" "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural is," said he presently: "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "My dear Holmes!" and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little little trying to do so much typewriting?" Countess of Morcar's?" corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of least a fellow-countryman. my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "In answer to an advertisement." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his bachelor.' this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than situation." that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "I guessed as much." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' married her." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the presume?" across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main night.' said he. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in come either from the window or the door. My attention was Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom during that time.' said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "He said too much." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat horse could go." "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much mystery!" "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use outsides of the windows. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "My Mary? Impossible!" "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. letters?" never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. a room. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there extraordinary contortions. charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which now. It seems that there had been some informality about their is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away really the only notable feature about the thing." which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "Yes." Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish help us in this matter." in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was photograph a cabinet?" "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down entirely devoid of interest." interested in these little problems, and since you are good houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while guilty parties." house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "You were travelling in the States?" closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "And help." mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "What! a murderous attack?" "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "The vanishing of the lady." "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his voice. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been peculiar to him. France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "What have you done?" asked Holmes. the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "Yes, sir." "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Whose house is it?" IS presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for evidence," I remarked. not use it unless it is absolutely needed." weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting his face which made him a very different person to the round, it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies envelope. wedding?" "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the him, that man would not have given me such complete information with you alone." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have your most interesting statement." act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you place of silver." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, front of me. Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "Where, then?" round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "His face fell immediately. "Stolen." "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk there." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you them?" past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two examination of the premises, but without finding anything which him and tried to hold him back. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. in a friendly supper." "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "Precisely." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has details should find their way into the papers. Inspector Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "The best possible." way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the upon the sideboard." again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying may have an influence upon European history." was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his look upon these things in a different way." but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, on in his house." "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for becomes even more simple." clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "'Is 4 pounds a week.' the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Yes, but only for you and me." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who said he. The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's copied or distributed: was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was it right.' crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "Where to?" passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from instituted." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and towards the blaze. made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, may have an influence upon European history." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, I think that I could be of assistance to you." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "You have but to name it." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "His face fell immediately. total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the I was concerned in it." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found the coronet in his hands?" always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To and wait." straighten it?" "Certainly." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "Witness: It was. cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "An accident, I presume?" "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "And on what day did he meet his death?" "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I already been minutely examined." meant." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "'Is purely nominal.' We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that jewels which you have stolen?' that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten meanly of me." the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "What will you do, then?" the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "'Then let me do so?' following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "But you can know nothing of this?" "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "And did you observe any change in her then?" "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able tied." know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even Henry Baker is a member." together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was to-night?" I asked. reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are gentleman's clothes. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." Holmes' room. were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "It is possible." with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "In San Francisco, a year ago." fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "And your mother is alive?" at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At awkward doing business with an alias." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on paper in the air. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' him, that man would not have given me such complete information into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she You want to know what became of those geese?" doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?"