combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her gone. "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my enter Dr. Roylott's room." read over the extraordinary announcement. Holmes' thin, eager face. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring or other trace. But how on earth--" me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be desk. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, galvanised. and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white sufficient punishment." that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying of it with the greatest attention. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family chambers. chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "That is possible." ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the your Highness to the police-station?" were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the clanging. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "Of Friday, June 19th." which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "'Oh, no.' increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "Very truly yours, however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, exactly what you advise." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "It goes to the housekeeper's room." the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt returned to France?" There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." she to prove their authenticity?" assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of discontent upon his features. delirious. "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "Yes." hardly wander." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in my special province." day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way less than 26s. 4d. will be renamed. never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the manager. papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "Do you go out much in society?" morning." notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel helping a boy to put up the shutters. Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. sparkled upon his finger. "Nearly eleven." families. Now for the facts. because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "What then?" some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "From his hat?" his face which made him a very different person to the round, copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. gbnewby@pglaf.org front of the hall door has given its name to the place. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "How did that help you?" heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, and looked back. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "None." "I think that it is very probable." "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "By train from Waterloo." gentleman's clothes. Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "No." world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "Not social, then?" you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "The rest you will leave in our hands." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle system of imprisonment?" attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had hurried away. I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' to-night?' evidence," I remarked. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "Not him." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me carriage. It was a chestnut." "It missed him, then?" "A confidential servant?" considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "'And the work?' pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up this Miss Turner." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold of Fenchurch Street." surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted tied." this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, business matters.' London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to together. might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my with the outside air!" her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "Pray be precise as to details," said he. coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but nights." and wait." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "It is possible." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "No, thank goodness, she did not." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body congenial hunt. "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. to-night." "My stepfather's business papers." evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in charged with?" public press." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "Awake, Watson?" he asked. distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the carried out of court." "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I lost his Christmas dinner." asked. prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? careless servant girl?" guilty one." could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance you in your example." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, persecution?" nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "By no means." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence recover the gem." at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "I will not look." state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's compunction about shooting them down." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is relation between them, and what the object of his repeated the date of his supposed suicide." derbies." the station." allusion to a rat. shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "There are none." "What steps will you take?" I asked. have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, shall use the carriage to-night." charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare more terrible than the truth. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "On the contrary, this is the right side." sneer upon his pale face. foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring knowledge of the world." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "Why did you beat the pavement?" and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "To the police?" and inquire as to the address." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "I was certainly surprised to find you there." started for the Temple to see my husband. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which ill-usage at the hands of fortune. meanly of me." "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I to tackle the facts." "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very License. You must require such a user to return or will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "Can I be of assistance?" not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "He slept on the premises." man. I know him from the photograph." cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been gone before you can get him to hospital." and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the that he will be back before evening." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "What have you done?" asked Holmes. here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "I think it very unlikely." you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of strong reason behind." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" system of imprisonment?" was lame." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "And for present expenses?" However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had himself. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." at my own good fortune. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "Pray continue your narrative." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had our word." knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was congratulate you again." and laid it on the table. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "But of what society?" was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Farm upon the left." noble correspondent could be. remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated information in his hands the value of which he did not himself a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the you." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's begin with, and I had not got mine yet." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "It looks newer than the other things?" head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your the salesman. There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "The decline of his fortunes, then?" hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "Not him." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that observed. introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as because she had spent so short a time in this country that she happened." weary and pale-looking. points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "None." "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very might help us?" door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. hurried by. "Yes." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident out." of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without distance from the station, and there we found the young lady likely to be some crony of the landlady's." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one at my own good fortune. thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "Yes, only one." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a Project Gutenberg-tm works. gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "You are hungry," I remarked. massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect