"I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." despair." "No, distinctly professional." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "And how did he make his money?" the bed, and you in that chair." "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included situation." outbreak?" late." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "Yes, they were peculiar boots." equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and the house with me." strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, respectable self." bearing upon the case." of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was not use it unless it is absolutely needed." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "And leave your case unfinished?" cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." to Leatherhead. the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same through." we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of conversation I have gathered that they have been married about the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, eat it." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up matter over." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat about. "My private note-paper." "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "No legal papers or certificates?" this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "How long did she speak to this Alice?" and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the mystery may be cleared along those lines." "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "No." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate more solid." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "'Not at all. I only doubt--' Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "Your French gold?" "I am in hopes that she does." careless servant girl?" my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "'I shall certainly be there.' son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Now, then, what's the last entry?" slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of Heh?' "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the read it out to me." and the colonel ushered me in. the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you the Red-headed League." most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. with her." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have papers." receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his believe that I should never have any practice at all. classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year figure." was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary meant." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured wedding?" planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "You have it, sir, just as it happened." flock.' Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was impression behind it as though a window had gently closed a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his respectable self." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, attention." "Not yet." connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, sufficient punishment." events, Mr. Windibank!" "Then I can wait in the next room." scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so all that?" America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, the little opening for the ventilator is." we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. it were putty." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen me have 200 pounds?' to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "'Which dealer's?' "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner affair. been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into delighted to hear it," he said. tell him that I know him to be innocent." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so than to us. red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "How long did she speak to this Alice?" yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and and inquire as to the address." recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, suspect him." "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of populous neighbourhood." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "'And what salary do you ask?' refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether observed. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "And on what day did he meet his death?" lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" you came in." the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "Absolutely?" the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "He is still with you, I presume?" in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices everything which you would wish to know." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "The King of Scandinavia." have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your recover the gem." "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "No, I had a dozen." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the point our research must commence, and we will begin it by greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which he. "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan breakfast?" demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "Texas, I think." "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an derbies." cigars in their mouths. defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "You forget that I know nothing about it." between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "You will not go there first?" glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of of the way of danger. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the think that any burglar could have done. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "I was mad--insane." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "I think that it is very probable." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed the roots. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the that you saw all that I did." Again Holmes raved in the air. "Pray continue your narrative." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "A confidential servant?" he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my derbies." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "I cannot imagine." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we she to prove their authenticity?" chambers. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my questionable one." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "And why in hopes?" "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there coat-tails." credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too with the outside air!" I have it here in my museum." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in ready to-morrow?' considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London see me here to avoid scandal." bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "What then?" train.' in the port of London." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy been." weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, colour had been driven from his face. business." "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "Yes." "VIOLET HUNTER." it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son in his hands." his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew lamp in his hand. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "Married! When?" their singular warning or token before them when starting upon apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful has little to do with my story." yourselves in at night?" enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. gone. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "I think it very unlikely." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his name is different." "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "I fear not." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. only touch the interest." who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions for securing the situation." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's became a certainty. "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but likely to be some crony of the landlady's." unprecedented a position." entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "My dear Holmes!" seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Was he the only applicant?" the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." few hundred pounds.' his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been forecastle of an emigrant ship. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called few hundred pounds.' "You know me, then?" "None." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "His face fell immediately. world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the secret." and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than Eyford at 11:15.' interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found of Mr. Rucastle's." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Have you it here?" feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an already been minutely examined." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." threw himself down with his face to the pillow. uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good business?" "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "'I shall certainly be there.' "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "Ten will be early enough." out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his appointment with me for six o'clock?" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which up this clue while it is still hot." "Then you may entirely rely on me." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the his eyes and forehead. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black awkward doing business with an alias." done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant your sleep?' "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the appointment with me for six o'clock?" window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "Pray let us have it, for all that." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped any little problem which you may submit to me." see a sister of mine apply for." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. helping a boy to put up the shutters.