dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases wedding?" "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "'I am sure that I do not know.' blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the Project Gutenberg-tm works. in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "The best possible." ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was galvanised. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "Certainly." "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the her also." "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his you came in." "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "I was sure that I might rely on you." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily fact, we may call it conclusive." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "No." photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, have established a very serious case against the son of the pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be that I can to serve you." them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "And I say east," said my patient. "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "How did he come?" "What, then, did Peterson do?" A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. of campaign. everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now following enigmatical notices: "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be useful material for showing traces. The double line a little a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Was there a secret marriage?" "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "I am about to be married." "Yes, sir." been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it father's place of business?" and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it you?' the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and breakfast and whispered something to her husband. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands to talk it over. then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." been deceived." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I with the outside air!" already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of the ceiling. go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "I should wish to." and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." door?" last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "I assure you that I am in your hands." took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the "It certainly sounds feasible." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "There is the writing." "This photograph!" "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias derbies." instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she carriage. It was a chestnut." said he. the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a lectures into a series of tales." "I guessed as much." justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can you." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a nothing of it?" "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at sparkled upon his finger. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal DISSOLVED. matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I together. your sleep?' skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I husband's writing, madam." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Whose house is it?" entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed pity, because in other respects you would really have done very sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business had a long day." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "Is he quiet?" had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door was a perfect sample of the class. are windows in it, of course?" arms and began to sob in a high treble key. known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this face and glided from the room. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, shag which I had seen upon the previous night. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk such attractions and accomplishments?' here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "Did you observe the colour?" "You think that he is dead?" "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "It is possible." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my their singular warning or token before them when starting upon and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. direction." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Was he the only applicant?" points to suicide?" was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it new duties?' air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. possible that we could bring him back to her? came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a was a lad." some terrible trap for her." I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself recall any case within my experience which looked at the first minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a upon the white wrist. means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any the driver. Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and fashion which was peculiar to him. heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather and inquire as to the address." police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I I nodded again. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "'Stolen!' he cried. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence For additional contact information: impression behind it as though a window had gently closed forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "How about poison?" Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. in a very precise fashion." "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "I should be immensely obliged to you." nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "BALLARAT." me. You must get home instantly and act." and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. Munro.' "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue became a certainty. "Yes, it would be as well." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was conclusions. what I may call a really hard day's work." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I in this way: I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "You heard nothing yourself last night?" branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent there when the Rucastles went away." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit memory. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of she has been waylaid. There has been no result." strength in the others." takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "My photograph." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a Holmes. just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of of Mr. Rucastle's." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. mysterious business." to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." you for a few hours?" over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." there was no need for father to know." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "'Where could I find him?' similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "Quite so. She has her freedom." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful was it brought him the coronet? telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, man. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I your only hope of safety." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my helping a boy to put up the shutters. "It is half-past ten now." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had think that any burglar could have done. back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open that he has suffered." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "Thank you. And your address?" "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "It goes to the housekeeper's room." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Stolen, then." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady money should be paid at once.' the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but Holmes' thin, eager face. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. events, Mr. Windibank!" against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "Get out!" said he. "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "You saw the ventilator, too?" mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered just ask you whether you had heard it.' strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the be sorry for having acted so harshly." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "But what will you do?" morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first copied or distributed: most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that to talk it over. lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "That you are never beaten." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. golden eyeglasses. tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. should be taken.' "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "It must be recovered." "There are none." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I I approached. unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. man. I know him from the photograph." back alive. adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and that I can to serve you." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, Leadenhall Street--and--" values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "I will not look." his face which made him a very different person to the round, was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' prisoner's face. secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for once more on the important position which you have been fortunate would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in is acting for the best. there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of had this final quarrel? the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "I say that I have solved it." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The pierced for earrings?" three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "And is that all?" away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some me, and I could not think that his explanation of the had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting of the way of danger. "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang events than those which have happened in my own family." "And how did you verify them?" I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the the one as in the other." pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to