"None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew of the efforts of the United States government and of the better anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no writers could invent nothing more crude." "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' go from here to the Strand." were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "No, my brougham is waiting." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our Edgeware Road. your bag." "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry and shall probably return to London by the evening train." are windows in it, of course?" side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis following enigmatical notices: the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I over his head with a sweet womanly caress. to some other building. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "No bad?" low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." train.' beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for business?" it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second page at http://pglaf.org line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who character. would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At always that they were such commands as a lady might with man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "A thing like a cleaver," said he. bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is arms and began to sob in a high treble key. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "You are all wrong." might help us?" "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "It is possible." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "What then?" deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "9th. McCauley cleared. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before which our visitor detailed to us. your only hope of safety." to-morrow." feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "By no means." "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance Farm upon the left." John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is security.' "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be there has been an enclosure here!" without a word or a look. as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, tear off another piece?' Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to "What do you mean?" conduct the inquiry." breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our there was no need for father to know." ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked narrative." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope crackling voice. Project Gutenberg-tm works. papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "And now?" I asked. of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "In San Francisco, a year ago." "Do you know him?" "I fear not." deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were were wasted." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge or in danger--" "How did that help you?" whereabouts. tear off another piece?' accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. and your relations to her." instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at Countess of Morcar's?" flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new in a very precise fashion." his fortune, and I went back to pa. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his light and attacked it." subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Stolen, then." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "No." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. for the market.' "Then I shall certainly come." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "Quite so." someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which to his chemical studies. complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "To an end?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." careless servant girl?" approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the his huge brown hands. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He and it need not interfere very much with one's other Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive were unconscious?" you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry learned something! Where are the gems?" License. You must require such a user to return or Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face has little to do with my story." "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I "What have you done?" asked Holmes. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Certainly." "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at London for the present?" at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of bears upon the case?" at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "How did that help you?" "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as presented more singular features than that which was associated were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "What can it mean?" I gasped. Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "And how did you verify them?" "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "You have a clue?" man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the newspaper selections." case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "Where to?" confronted him. Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. and effective." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such thirty. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and society." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "Who was the criminal, then?" turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "'About the same.' work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. you in yours." hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a wife's character?" been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was me where it went to?" Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "And from a noble client?" have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "I am to be neutral?" envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one beg that you will break it off." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." asked with his eyes open. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face papers." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. it. remarked. would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you at home. hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "'What are you doing there?' he asked. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not wife's character?" to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "But we can't all be." weigh very heavily upon my conscience." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than my little problems." Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may never will be, entirely cleared up. "'It is locked up,' I answered. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "Do you receive much company?" he asked. be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was "It's nothing of the kind." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "I do." said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "Yes. He waved his hands." his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was other means.' License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and them?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, retorted upon me, and I on you." when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would very old mansion. round and wave him away like that.' "Then, as to money?" the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "But what will you do?" The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I for its centre. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "Then you may entirely rely on me." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny must be when I saw the door open.' make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' I think that I could be of assistance to you." October 9, 1890. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying affair. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window be. Holmes' thin, eager face. Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott all?" way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "'Then let me do so?' answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "No more words. Get out!" brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel in this way: hurried away. British peeress.'" IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "But he might be a bachelor." immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can becomes even more simple." screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" province." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was that you saw all that I did." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief back into the street. over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you the bed, and you in that chair." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had guilty one." place, I think that there is good ground to think that the "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our train.' "And that is--" is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely future lives." meant it for the best. seen the man in the road." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have