Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "So I have heard." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "Then, how do you know?" lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "Witness: I must still refuse. "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing your sleep?' there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your man. I know him from the photograph." given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "No bad?" sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the John Swain, of St. Augustine. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some telegram would bring me down to your help." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "I saw her in conversation with her maid." his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were events than those which have happened in my own family." theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I fashion which was peculiar to him. doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of prove to be little relation between the different incidents of Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt locked." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "Dr. Becher's." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and the stable lane now." "In San Francisco, a year ago." "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind you for a few hours?" society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out appeal." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "And I." morning." didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a happened." "But of what society?" ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and forbidden door. of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated Serpentine Avenue. layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "That is possible." it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "Ha! you find it so?" Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul himself in a perplexing position. does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls breakfast and whispered something to her husband. and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" been able to understand it, in a very few words. course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "And your mother is alive?" "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "This concluded the examination of the witness." he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able seven miles from Eyford Station.' those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "I have hopes." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, conduct the inquiry." and effective." and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." your Highness to the police-station?" Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "And what then?" together. so.' Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I means taking possession of that which another person has a prior exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "Perfectly so." vault. was it brought him the coronet? snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used there was no need for father to know." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "And why?" was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he The events in question occurred in the early days of my once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of this remarkable episode. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his knowledge of the world." With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes gives a meaning to it." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. as noiselessly as she had come. knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money burst into a hearty fit of laughter. is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "My opinion is in no way altered." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, annoyance, but no jest. up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon looking up at the numbers of the houses." no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening the best of training." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," passage and a tap at the door. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the have not had my rubber." "Could he throw no light?" card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if the armchair which I pushed forward for him. neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from Surrey." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "You'll never persuade me to believe that." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which letters?" stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that Pope's Court. Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I introspective fashion. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of that?' before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Henry Baker is a member." chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight observed. in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "Yes." telegram would bring me down to your help." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "So it appears." well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features crime. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. mystery." "You horrify me." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." shaken than I had ever seen him. loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after fled together." I nodded to show that I had heard. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than you understand?" "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand the coroner come to?" all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no said Mr. Holder. the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not that you saw all that I did." south, for the country is more deserted there." woman." Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such woven round him. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "My private note-paper." brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug awaited us upon the table. "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a affair. touch that coronet?' have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square trying to your nerves." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" strange features which were associated with the two crimes which help us in this matter." "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally matter over." I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, least a fellow-countryman. seen the man in the road." going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a Holmes' thin, eager face. shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness in this note: have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "Then I can wait in the next room." difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "By no means." suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" present." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "That sounds a little paradoxical." "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "Not in the least." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger said Mr. Holder. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" neither fascinating nor artistic." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't highly," said Holmes. is acting for the best. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me she to prove their authenticity?" Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "There is the writing." "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." name is different." and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which are windows in it, of course?" years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "Of what day?" opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little affair. and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "I am all attention, madam." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise with some details as to your case." humiliation." the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "Did he not advertise?" "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "My dear Holmes!" to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. shall use the carriage to-night." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, the date of his supposed suicide." of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "You think that he is dead?" young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. to-night?" I asked. farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "The gentleman I describe." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by whatever might befall. will take you up to see the machine.' have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Well, but China?" "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "At half-wages, in fact." would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "I will get her to show me." on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to something of him before." remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "How can you tell that?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we unclasping of his long thin hands. a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right the room while you explain this matter?" and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her to a more successful conclusion." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have the nursery.