not fit the lock." think that any burglar could have done. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar like that before?" transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "'In my own bureau.' been with you?" objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that putting in the horse. the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making problems help me to do so." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "And who is her maid?" Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and conversation I have gathered that they have been married about might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's your room." justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a better in every way that they should make their position a little "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and writers could invent nothing more crude." "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now business at Coburg Square is serious." upon the sideboard." "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed possible that we could bring him back to her? the Assizes." follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. window when the police appeared." varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young digesting their breakfasts at home." Munro.' "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "Where, then?" not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Absolutely?" "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual standing smiling on the door-step. "It looks newer than the other things?" look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which felt?" as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even I took the paper from him and read as follows: keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. people in all walks of life. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. humiliation." "Stolen." Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "'What do you call purely nominal?' states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down coroner's jury." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "The Coroner: What do you mean? and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. I shall communicate with you." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. waste of energy." really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is the very morning of the wedding." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police address. transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but Pope's Court. "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "You forget that I know nothing about it." had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of him!" "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you passage and a tap at the door. At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew pity, because in other respects you would really have done very very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was you came in." toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be door?" would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "I was afraid that you were engaged." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow stepfather?" "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than to-night." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "But the mystery?" "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "Why did you beat the pavement?" his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot his face which made him a very different person to the round, however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after trifles." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a a suggestive one." dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the assist you in forming an opinion." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "How did he come?" "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt bears upon the case?" she slowly sank and died without having recovered her once more for Briony Lodge. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "What is it?" heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion and it need not interfere very much with one's other "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of carpenter." to talk it over. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience second window is the one that I jumped from." during which he might have communicated with his friend the tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt the warnings." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "What, then, did Peterson do?" the King without delay." suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "Yes, it would be as well." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America Holmes." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." like gravel from a pit.' then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Perfectly so." coroner's jury." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who passage and a tap at the door. and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing train from Paddington which would bring you there at about of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to call the police, let the police find what they can.' already been minutely examined." forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a noise which awoke you from your sleep?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" thin legs towards the fire. "Witness: I must still refuse. and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "How did you deduce the select?" me where it went to?" have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found carried out of court." her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to there were one or two details which were new to me. But the at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, make me his representative both with the servants and with the Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. interested in these little problems, and since you are good room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else populous neighbourhood." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and together. "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City Holmes." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." up this clue while it is still hot." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias details." once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, introspective fashion. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. gone. "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "'About the same.' death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, empty. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." kind enough to tell me what I should do." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know in this way: "I promise," said Holmes. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "Yes, the wine-cellar." in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "'I am sure if I had known--' "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "It is true that I have been generally successful." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "I cannot as yet see any connection." "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "What do you make of that, Watson?" Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "Texas, I think." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, said I. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp arrested. You then--" Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last trifles." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have very peculiar words of the dying woman?" them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital tightly behind him. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I business." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "I have my revolver," said I. him, that man would not have given me such complete information more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the bedroom door." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. address. "'I shall certainly be there.' the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It which was all perfectly true. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "Entirely." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his telegram would bring me down to your help." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, bears upon the case?" great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, bachelor.' depend upon my doing so.' up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a closely." He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several here." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "So it appears." "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "'Quite sure, dad.' "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "'Never,' said I. "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "How often?" "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news man. I know him from the photograph." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and this poor creature." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "May I see it?" public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "But what is it you wish?" It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "Murdered?" time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "It is true that I have been generally successful." morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made the salesman. of your young ladies.' was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "Yes." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "What steps will you take?" I asked. thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It