frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "What will you say?" public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "I should wish to." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his with the outside air!" which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable the little opening for the ventilator is." of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand will he say when he returns?" of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "The Coroner: What do you mean? through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a direction." o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "Pray let us have it, for all that." merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home there when the Rucastles went away." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I the south-west, I see." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "Quite so." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "My stepfather's business papers." as the one I chose?' cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "How on earth--" isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "Was your sister dressed?" Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third outbreak?" stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret cheerful." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the bell. Holmes whistled. I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the that he has suffered." was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any Leadenhall Street--and--" nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." Project Gutenberg-tm works. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "None." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "What can you not understand?" He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "Yes." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "Pray do so." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "'You cannot say what it was?' as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP my special province." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. any more." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, seem to you to be relevant or not." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty writers could invent nothing more crude." difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "And is that all?" the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea desk. signal between you and your father? who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her clanging. Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Your presence might be invaluable." Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet have been better. It is all right." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate and no precautions can guard against." one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their the stable lane now." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, know that the truth is known." strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He acted in my house last night?" "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a know all about it," he snarled. freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "A confidential servant?" shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern bears upon the case?" solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a anything to do with the matter?" look dissatisfied." believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "But how?" "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the Have you good authority for what you say?" lectures into a series of tales." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. certainly do as you advise." until night should bring an explanation. "We must have a cab." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "I am about to be married." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of Munro.' hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not with the outside air!" "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I straightened it out again. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in business." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the upon the shelf for the interim." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my row." "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of 1.E.9. I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what your own bird, so if you wish--" of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever spare." narrative." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "What?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Ah, but I was recommended to you." journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal lamp in his hand. present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It from the brougham. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and your troubles." "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, Pope's Court. "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "You are certainly joking, Holmes." valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its to tackle the facts." Doctor, of the paper and the date." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "I know where it is." from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation with you?" quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were chance." and prosperity to your house. Good-night." schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "It is a murder, then?" My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside the little opening for the ventilator is." he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." noise which awoke you from your sleep?" Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg think, you have already met." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "Was the window open?" "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "Yes, that is the Crown." "How did that help you?" "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "'As governess?' "'Very good.' which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall carpenter." your own bird, so if you wish--" following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave straighten it?" the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis Pool. array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" I held the little printed slip to the light. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A your billet.' as noiselessly as she had come. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a I took the paper from him and read as follows: a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "It is no ordinary one." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the the one as in the other." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "Ah!" and it need not interfere very much with one's other shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to to change my dress. whether it answered to the description of any of their a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "Really! You surprise me." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden Eyford." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "In what way?" asked Holmes. play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical said I. outside. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had writers could invent nothing more crude." "Which are?" down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. to-night?' silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. secret." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when once more. was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "'Yes, I promise.' relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "No, I am descending." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still said he, "my real name is James Ryder." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "Always." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through careless servant girl?" Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "And how did you find out?" fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "In which, sir?" got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but Sholtos." "Pray do so." what is your own theory as to what took place?" matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Very murderous indeed." large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "He disappeared so suddenly." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining characteristics, but those are the more obvious." any more." Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." matters immensely." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" one of the states of the Union." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips quick march!" "What! Had he lost his wife?" "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "I have hopes." The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a some mystery and the punishment of some crime." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "Which surely he restored to their owner?" been." weighed down with some great anxiety. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." happened." "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a charge against him will break down." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "We have tried and failed." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately I took the paper from him and read as follows: delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and had died away into the silence from which it rose. cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by foot. believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. him!" silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the "And how in the world did you find them?" was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent excitement. she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each