ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the look upon these things in a different way." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat His name is Francis Prosper." eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some at once, for I have only half an hour." "And I to find an enemy." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without have had none more fantastic than this." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His best detective that ever lived. will find little credit to be gained out of this case." I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "Ah, but I was recommended to you." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "Come in!" said Holmes. chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss once more to my work. "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which careless servant girl?" that?' "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will bed dies. Does not that strike you?" that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "You were travelling in the States?" The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you enter Dr. Roylott's room." "Upon what point?" unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might which was all perfectly true. going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to new duties?' the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "And your father? Did you tell him?" I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "'You cannot say what it was?' back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, locked." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the unclasping of his long thin hands. crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and situation." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the eavesdroppers?' Chief Executive and Director massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the them, and came down just as you departed. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "She walked into the breakfast-room." silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Not particularly." A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "At the wedding breakfast." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "How did that help you?" me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which head. So long, then!" suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. me what he had done with the three missing stones. twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds feature." clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "Was the window open?" having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "No." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin could not account in any way for the presence of the missing the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, not come at once?" time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an his grey eyes. saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have for securing the situation." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "Nothing?" "I have seen the police." man. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are without success. At last the little money which I had saved began what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "Yes." the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, like gravel from a pit.' my special province." re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and thin, with a long, sharp nose?" the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "That is it on the dressing-table." make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "Certainly." the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of when you have done it." unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an future lives." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when his forehead." he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. are windows in it, of course?" the dangers which encompass me." woman." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I Mary, has deserted me." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon like that before?" "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and bell. Holmes whistled. done what I asked you, Jones?" and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, nonsense.' "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, any little problem which you may submit to me." is," said he presently: status with the IRS. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "That also I could fathom." fattened it expressly for you.' Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to pity, because in other respects you would really have done very face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "No, distinctly professional." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of visitors." tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg over here." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "VIOLET HUNTER." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do have I gained?" honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "Yes." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as You can understand that this register and diary may implicate my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "Yes. He waved his hands." which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "Quite so. She has her freedom." Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "Imitated." should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. thirty. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be bird I ate is country bred." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "I have come for advice." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "My last client of the sort was a king." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We leave you to your papers for a little." to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's DISSOLVED. both be extremely obliged.' in my life." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "And how?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "Yes, certainly." "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the which I could not give. He asked for Alice. Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from less than 26s. 4d. The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. away into the river." Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. out." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "Why serious?" "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we your own bird, so if you wish--" "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations mystery." importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well soul! here is her carriage at the door." confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of in his power. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is business matters.' coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for it." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," 'I should be able to look after that for you.' public press." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was weary and pale-looking. foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and rat could hardly pass through." "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "But she will refuse." within hail.' a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "Nor running a chance of arrest?" half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "No, but the enclosure is." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, The summons was a brief and urgent one. vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a read over the extraordinary announcement. child?' together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" as noiselessly as she had come. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are he died? one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at showing my impatience. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "And your father? Did you tell him?" here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat you in yours." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "Entirely." "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." not personally threatened." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with south, for the country is more deserted there." "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, money should be paid at once.' "To an English lawyer named Norton." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. bachelor.' "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, there were so many in the whole country as were brought together on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll noise which awoke you from your sleep?" asked. "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "Well, but China?" again on its way. the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of if I call to-morrow?" quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland floor. over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future my special province." adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, certainly not very gracious." Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with never came back." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the