detective. once more for Briony Lodge. web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I them present such singular features as the strange train of threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was brain must have something in it." he bowed and left the room without another word. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed considering the formidable letters which were received by himself devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have society." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "Won't it ring?" I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose meant it for the best. suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the most important business. It is probable that he will be away all us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and astonishment. James Windibank. Voilà tout!" Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "I will try. What is it?" post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." pity, because in other respects you would really have done very notes," he said. accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to with you?" "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. second." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "Yesterday." "In the cells." some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "I think it very unlikely." that I am arrested." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone strode off upon his way. afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. have been better. It is all right." "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with and the whole place is in a blaze." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "It surprised me." served to weaken the effect. and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal enter Dr. Roylott's room." redistribution. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Did your wife hear all this?" "Who was the criminal, then?" "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant country, and eventually married, without anyone having a penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. security.' why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether this unhappy family?" "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "Nearly eleven." disturbance in my wife." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at from you?" along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the was feeling which was the fattest.' shadow pass over his face as I spoke. note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "But the mystery?" was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "Where did he live, then?" said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "Certainly." broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. really the only notable feature about the thing." the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "And why in hopes?" of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." direction." no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can you." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." be. behind me. less than 26s. 4d. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be written, and locked the door of the office after me. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her said I. "What office?" heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "If so, much may have happened between." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first best detective that ever lived. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my noise which awoke you from your sleep?" another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. assist you in forming an opinion." clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a less than 26s. 4d. "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking remarked. narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "It came here." or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." never to learn it at all." flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not noble correspondent could be. breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "She showed me, as I told you she would." There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, sound at heart." He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a http://gutenberg.net/license). her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and is acting for the best. as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in already referred to. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. the child." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and seem to you to be relevant or not." which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "Not him." his wife has ceased to love him." arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew very peculiar words of the dying woman?" knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian weighed down with some great anxiety. impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "You did not overhear what they said?" safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his Sutherland. paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, the very morning of the wedding." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. morning." sufficient punishment." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, were unconscious?" the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "I have solved it." crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "What shall I do?" like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom gigantic client. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." clang of the bell. pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "And what did you learn from him?" ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "You have carte blanche." sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible and the church but not where the lady lived." be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "Has he come with you to-night?" "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "One?" "Where, then?" strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." foresight and the moral retrogression?" dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "One horse?" interjected Holmes. her also." eat it." owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of was feeling which was the fattest.' once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "What have you done?" asked Holmes. other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to it were putty." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" strode off upon his way. "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. infinite languor in his face. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an ordinary clothes on?" so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "Was she in good spirits?" "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "We have tried and failed." many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some been able to understand it, in a very few words. King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "'Very good.' it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for there was no need for father to know." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "I am all attention, madam." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "A greater distance to travel." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each Sutherland. "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. lamp. way in everything. he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged annoyance, but no jest. to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady matter over." flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me begin with, and I had not got mine yet." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help Munro.' cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "Perhaps I have." photograph?" cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Where, then, is my wife?" "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "He slept on the premises." place, I think that there is good ground to think that the two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "Never to return." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found against a man in the prime of life?" since then to throw any light upon what became of him." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. 'please.'" daring than any effort of the imagination." a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. this as likely?" down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to man. snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "No." had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. voice. rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, Mrs. Toller serenely. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. advice." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some meant it for the best. there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of come either from the window or the door. My attention was Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the returning from some small jollification and was making his way "Where to?" He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent held up the lantern and gazed about him. I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered bearing upon the case." here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and dead, shall be safe with us." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being cigar and let me expound." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "And you can do nothing until then?" is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my south, for the country is more deserted there." "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" fashion which was peculiar to him. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "Your presence might be invaluable." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "Oh, fresh and glossy." deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is ran thus: Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no lips." Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "But he might be a bachelor." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a manager. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out a good hundred miles off by now." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "Indeed! Whose, then?" tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she use an arc-and-compass breastpin." very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the several quiet little villages up there." "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. the Assizes." furiously. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "'I should be happy to make myself useful.'