at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was lids now and glanced across at his visitor. wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of the stones. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience bonnet, and went out." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "My dear Holmes!" old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous closing the door. "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "What will you do, then?" We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a so.' since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in During two years I have had three consultations and one small mysterious end." effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a chance at all." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "None." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to floor. robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. away to you." "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "Witness: I must still refuse. there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and giving me time to thank him. to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. digesting their breakfasts at home." graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be present." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, tension within him. "Dark enough and sinister enough." wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried disturbance in my wife." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "None." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. could gather together that I was able to avert another public were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "He is dead," cried several voices. "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "Not yet." man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to letters?" "One?" corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this of receipt of the work. "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature posted to-day." feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself death." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "Of what day?" "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "You forget that I know nothing about it." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself the general public were present, then?" "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "'About the same.' could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round http://www.gutenberg.net About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is enough to aid us in our search." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "'No, I know no one in these parts.' and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should intrusion of other matters." is entirely a question of barometric pressure." quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "He might." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "You know me, then?" the Assizes." PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And dates and names. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind for its centre. upon the shelf for the interim." Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and you understand?" the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Yes, it would be as well." upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm Count Von Kramm." "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years morning." 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "Where, then?" skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look conclusions. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single made him keep the appointment." conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited DISSOLVED. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business carriage. It was a chestnut." photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "Certainly." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' which are rolled in Rotterdam." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "It is true that I have been generally successful." minor matters until to-morrow." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "What have you done?" asked Holmes. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in a few minutes he said that it would be all right. however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "It may not come to that," said Holmes. Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled there when the Rucastles went away." "It is possible." "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used all that?" lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while was a perfect sample of the class. "There is the writing." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "Never to return." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be Chief Executive and Director of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. might have a private word with us. man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong words came to my lips. and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his felt?" you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" dear old homesteads?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his fact, we may call it conclusive." redistribution. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced generous with you in money matters.' "Eh? What was that?" delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. mystery." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes were wasted." "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there dramatic, in fact." "Eh? What was that?" little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon gentleman's clothes. "About a month then." breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a rooms." them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion you?" Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "And what then?" doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." national property. I was determined that the law should have its with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss their singular warning or token before them when starting upon such person." I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "I have my revolver," said I. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice voice, changing her seat as requested. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace once more. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "I have solved it." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I whereabouts. "Certainly." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, maid will bring up your coffee." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "Of what?" "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be you in yours." both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the are windows in it, of course?" them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "'I am sure that I do not know.' When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, at once, for I have only half an hour." "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting not as remarkable as your advertisement." only touch the interest." determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. upon the white wrist. word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "I assure you that I am in your hands." down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as over part of the map. "What do you read?" held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in there has been an enclosure here!" could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return had this final quarrel? study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "I came to find a friend." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. I leave." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of heavy and sharp instrument." "What I expected to see." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Pope's Court, Fleet Street." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small for the market.' There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing anything to a woman, for she would have her way." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my forebodings. kind enough to tell me what I should do." fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered in. somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' been able to understand it, in a very few words. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "Her father is very rich?" was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, go from here to the Strand." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian your only hope of safety." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out putting in the horse. goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' it." The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say noble correspondent could be. she slowly sank and died without having recovered her liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in