always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It But Holmes shook his head gravely. the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "'Yes, I promise.' I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at rose-bushes. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before opened the door, and slipped through. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us room had already been engaged for us. any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "'Oh, no.' eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with this truth that in these little records of our cases which you shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there I leave." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It sound at heart." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that advice." the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is golden eyeglasses. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two before, for it was considerably after midnight. humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a are, and they are waiting for us." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "You are certainly joking, Holmes." expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." then?" town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an that he has suffered." never came back." you." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I bird of prey. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the in. five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but anything to a woman, for she would have her way." banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the McCarthy's innocence. on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room you give your casting vote to?" his huge brown hands. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "'There is a drive, then?' "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I in. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "Where, indeed?" other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to important." business?" Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune discontent upon his features. after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were Where does the thing come from?' There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon the salesman. these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" Serpentine Avenue. and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the said he. ourselves in the office." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "Yes, sir." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. situation." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through furiously. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug papers must be those that are destroyed.' money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what Leave Paddington by the 11:15." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Were they all fastened this morning?" "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. it. dramatic, in fact." mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell my secret was safe in his possession. "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It I have it here in my museum." other, as fresh and trim as possible. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and matter." "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "My Mary? Impossible!" rose-bushes. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "I was mad--insane." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in indiscretion." was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no delighted to hear it," he said. heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been lips." appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "But I am all in the dark." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "You horrify me!" has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from business came to an end." nothing with him." "When did it break out?" you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, which was all perfectly true. impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of politicians who had been sent down from the North. Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote nights." low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles easy-going way." right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "You have a clue?" "It surprised me." envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the way in everything. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. placed his cuttings. In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing my secret was safe in his possession. "What I expected to see." A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle the inner apartment." "No more words. Get out!" grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no placed his cuttings. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall shadow pass over his face as I spoke. smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "Yes, at the mines." "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more even of instruction." "Certainly." maiden herself was most instructive." Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all now. It seems that there had been some informality about their Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other quickly through a disagreeable task. in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the relief. met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had the side-table." "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical individual and becomes the badge of a society." Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "I am in hopes that she does." "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards you came in." "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "Why did you pick him?" Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, writing, and yet I know it well." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and take the flies, but not before." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his congenial hunt. you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Nothing?" "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side delirious. address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "In San Francisco, a year ago." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Very. But will he see it?" "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a breakfast and whispered something to her husband. the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "Get out!" said he. "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while once more for Briony Lodge. "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "'Very good.' prepare for the new role I have to play." the bottom.' When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "I say that I have solved it." consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought fait accompli?" unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master information in his hands the value of which he did not himself need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the forebodings. I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the Street. "You forget that I know nothing about it." "How did you trace it, then?" on re-entering her father's house?" handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "The best possible." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so instituted." "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" nights." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "And how did you find out?" Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "Awake, Watson?" he asked. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling you." registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she with her." and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more quick march!" despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Entirely." hands. a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "Dr. Becher's." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after to-night?" I asked. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to Doctor, of the paper and the date." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was and have this put in the evening papers." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. directly by questioning you." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any the very morning of the wedding." revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "In San Francisco, a year ago." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly Serpentine Avenue. o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was anything to do with the matter?" Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are in darkness. footfalls from the street. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was shoulder; "he's all right." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took you for a few hours?" down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "They are typewritten," I remarked. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "Then I do not see the point." then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his public press." another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "My dear Holmes!" what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" some terrible trap for her." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Get out!" said he. "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the "'What are you doing there?' he asked. forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed