Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. British peeress.'" month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "Yes, the wine-cellar." in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings said I. "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "Where, then?" "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the the house with me." "'What are you doing there?' he asked. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the standing smiling on the door-step. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "'Yes, sir.' writing, and yet I know it well." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low one else, I think." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "Precisely." ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley strength of mind to control. Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any been deceived." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "But we can't all be." had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and future lives." flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, it were putty." to change my dress. as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from open." "Will you go?" walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it back into the street. many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "But how?" "Precisely." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. the King without delay." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of a room. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not to take care of herself." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "What I expected to see." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of stammered. out of this horrible affair." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main a very grave face. against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "'Stolen!' he cried. "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "You have the photograph?" "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "9th. McCauley cleared. half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "I have a cab outside." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without nothing of it?" between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "His face fell immediately. to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be James Windibank. Voilà tout!" all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, Holmes' face clouded over. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a followed. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most particular state visit http://pglaf.org villagers almost as much as their master. the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away the little opening for the ventilator is." For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could God! What an exposure! What can I do?" have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "On the contrary, this is the right side." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the there was no need for father to know." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the to Leatherhead. the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "Imitated." clang of the bell. surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "Perhaps I have." the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "But his lameness?" a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "Then I am your man." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "What do you mean?" "And on what day did he meet his death?" in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "Certainly." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "'Yes, sir.' he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "What steps will you take?" I asked. "Then I shall certainly come." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, Young McCarthy must be got off, however." Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to green of the new foliage. "Married! When?" Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in girl said." British peeress.'" room?" have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "Nothing." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," been anything against him. He had for years been known as a true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." yourselves in at night?" tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely the stones. "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "Yes, it was twisted." fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It obstinate." manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "She told me to ask you." little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its you." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "ARAT," I read. "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter without a word or a look. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "I would give my fortune to have them back." "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and so.' town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the do." the devil!" screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little secret." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have late." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in electronic works cost them two and thirty pounds." case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Mrs. Toller serenely. forbidden door. house for five minutes.' Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, weary and pale-looking. that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, have one." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "Well, but China?" this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. case before our client came into the room." been anything against him. He had for years been known as a poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of pity, because in other respects you would really have done very that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been again before evening." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, true." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Yes, that is the Crown." it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were http://gutenberg.net/license). thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep manager. of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then this man was intellectual?" the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "Now, then, what's the last entry?" delirious. "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, bell. Holmes whistled. among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about I took the paper from him and read as follows: on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this to-night's adventure." exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that swore that no one else had been in the front room during the the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose geese which you supplied to the Alpha." saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. writing, and yet I know it well." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "What is it, then--a fire?" "Then the page we have seen--" way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for me." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "'Why that?' I asks. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a three fields round his house, and there he would take his unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "'And the work?' a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" there was no need for father to know." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "So I heard. You have him here?" who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." to you." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "What do you make of that, Watson?" Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been taking in every detail of the apartment. story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a it." overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "In the cells." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "Ha! you find it so?" When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a at once, for I have only half an hour." the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly there were one or two details which were new to me. But the Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "And the murderer?" looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold returned to France?" "What shall I do?" half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She was not a bird to be seen there. the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his arrested. You then--" very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off information in his hands the value of which he did not himself ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Yes, he did." hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the call for it in person on Monday morning.' in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. touch that coronet?' "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know cause to be." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney me. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a here and I will read it to you: "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "'Which dealer's?' "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted touch that coronet?' charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young "Where did you address your letters, then?" and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. chamber." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been have I gained?" "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, woven round him. remarked. do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "ARAT," I read. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and least a most suspicious remark." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "'Most admirably.' "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "No, thank goodness, she did not." though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in during which he might have communicated with his friend the "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, may have an influence upon European history." "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an the driver. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "To the police?" bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army,