strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. cheerful." possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of present strange and interesting features that it is no easy It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would me what he had done with the three missing stones. with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and gigantic client. imbecility!" he cried. pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it which are rolled in Rotterdam." than was visible to me." "'I am sure that I do not know.' pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the along the entire front of the house, with three long windows key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside together. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. side. very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on words came to my lips. "To ruin me." I was concerned in it." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "Were they all fastened this morning?" Henry Baker is a member." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact been anything against him. He had for years been known as a to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door she might be summoned. matters immensely." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' union?" William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of presented more singular features than that which was associated out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "And your father? Did you tell him?" that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can out of this horrible affair." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips But Holmes shook his head gravely. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "My photograph." The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the to that open window." importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of followed. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "And Irene Adler?" Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying ashen face. provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "But not more so than I to find you." surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." investigation." strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the clang of the bell. formed some opinion?" turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need again." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "Yes, but only for you and me." "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square interested in these little problems, and since you are good for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when may have an influence upon European history." "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, I. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. miles off. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "I say that I have solved it." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time hair?' the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the but preventing her from injuring another. and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in the ceiling. column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, that he will be back before evening." condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" thin, with a long, sharp nose?" a monotonous occupation." exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "'Tell me all about it,' said I. usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was said he at last. weighed down with some great anxiety. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only along the entire front of the house, with three long windows roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, it. "And that is--" "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my said he. noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second breakfast?" "'I am sure that I do not know.' "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "I am in hopes that she does." attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent it right.' suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "That is it on the dressing-table." been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low photograph?" Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side second." left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, garden below. Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "I assure you that I am in your hands." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears bonnet, and went out." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your which I could not give. He asked for Alice. You want to know what became of those geese?" then?" way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for been with you?" immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "'What, the red-headed man?' remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent to miss it." Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin to where he stood hid behind the curtain. that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of them?" practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "What steps will you take?" I asked. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "Where to?" "How are you getting on?" heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he as the one I chose?' that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." name is different." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the approach us with offers to donate. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and room had already been engaged for us. Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say was a perfect sample of the class. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in along the entire front of the house, with three long windows hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would fire. You quite follow me?" "What!" he roared. "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for you in yours." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, where she found matters as described by the last witness. and effective." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "'Ten to two.' "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of recover the gem." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a there when the Rucastles went away." "What then?" Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "None. Neville wrote those words." been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "'And what salary do you ask?' Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a ceremony." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to begun to whiten, even as mine has." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "You horrify me!" my room." enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "It surprised me." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "And how have you succeeded?" point in the dark hollow of his hand. at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert instituted." prison!" "You did not overhear what they said?" facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "Indeed! Whose, then?" prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy what I may call a really hard day's work." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind the matter." It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove Sutherland. "Yes, that is the Crown." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard stepfather?" just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "I have come for advice." "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. way in everything. Edgeware Road. the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson Stoke Moran." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "Then what has happened to him?" "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss problems help me to do so." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew do you make of it all?" "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "The murder was done with it." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "She showed me, as I told you she would." The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons this Miss Turner." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind come either from the window or the door. My attention was "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "Yes?" been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Certainly." "Game for a morning drive?" this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely examination of the premises, but without finding anything which did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "In answer to an advertisement." "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." recall any case within my experience which looked at the first of campaign. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the himself. LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a his knees, staring into the fire. "Not yet." "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the the house with me." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "And now?" He raised his hand. he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "Yes." particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I amused." giving me time to thank him. being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt I held the little printed slip to the light. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "You have compromised yourself seriously." frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the written, and locked the door of the office after me. my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of affection." Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "And you thought he was pulled back?" upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "That is unusual in a young girl." all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast "'And what salary do you ask?' the very morning of the wedding." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "I do." plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "'I have heard so.' long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "I think it very unlikely." "No, finished." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, things are very often connected not with the larger but with the thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the McCarthy." turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her have one." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? Again Holmes raved in the air. and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the official police." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are IS "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence reach." pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." what is your own theory as to what took place?" "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance excitement. follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My where she found matters as described by the last witness. and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we companion. over his head with a sweet womanly caress. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the absolutely follow my advice in every respect." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the investigation." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in test if we have an answer to our advertisement." foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a chemical work which was so dear to him. into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I furiously. Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, lost nothing by them." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "On the contrary, this is the right side." "It missed him, then?" you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "Witness: Nothing definite. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came