McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just the inner apartment." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "What I expected to see." mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "Precisely so. But how--" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be money should be paid at once.' quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as did not hear it also.' married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I in. "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "And when will you call?" "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. but preventing her from injuring another. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a writing, and yet I know it well." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your not as remarkable as your advertisement." "On your arm?" stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and telegram would bring me down to your help." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "Yes, at the mines." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "He is dead," cried several voices. "'Where could I find him?' ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "Did you become engaged then?" "But you can know nothing of this?" dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than good for you to do.' in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "You have it, sir, just as it happened." superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking the salesman. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after me upon any point which I do not make clear." was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "She showed me, as I told you she would." "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "It's nothing of the kind." "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An mystery may be cleared along those lines." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "But how will you look?" overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Very well, sir. And this stone?" column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "And the cigar-holder?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. it with his own hands." "Always." "And for present expenses?" of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "What can it mean?" I gasped. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as will he say when he returns?" "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. other, as fresh and trim as possible. "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" served to weaken the effect. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, daring than any effort of the imagination." returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular colour had been driven from his face. "And what did you see?" grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "'Certainly,' I answered. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "It is very clear." tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." The summons was a brief and urgent one. jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on you." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." rooms." mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it emerged. went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. followed. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer morning." have accepted such a situation. recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "And Irene Adler?" "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. politicians who had been sent down from the North. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "And now?" I asked. and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for this man was intellectual?" "In the cells." retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some to tackle the facts." "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." Again Holmes raved in the air. I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and them?" reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as thin, with a long, sharp nose?" very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "I never have." devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "It goes to the housekeeper's room." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it rooms." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "What, then, did Peterson do?" vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "I am about to be married." pound a week." "It is very clear." but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "Nothing." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "The doctor?" really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" footfalls from the street. bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, the nursery. little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "Your sister is dead, then?" receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "'Certainly not.' thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we that you saw all that I did." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local had picked up in the wood. handed it to him. Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who purpose equally well?" round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong without a word or a look. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes details should find their way into the papers. Inspector go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "Certainly, madam." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "The knees of his trousers." had formerly been in part my own. your sleep?' had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "You have the photograph?" "And when will you call?" remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "Nothing." "The King of Scandinavia." upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided maiden herself was most instructive." Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "Yes, but only for you and me." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning secret." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "Bought." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "So I heard. You have him here?" follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "Won't it ring?" "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I the coroner come to?" "I say it is." what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. you?' to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "The vanishing of the lady." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson works. See paragraph 1.E below. wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a to me. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the and no precautions can guard against." buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" just ask you whether you had heard it.' "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "I answered that I had not. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Proceed, then." not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was future lives." "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who vanished into the darkness. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "Was he the only applicant?" have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a know all about it," he snarled. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "Have you her photograph?" transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may in the dead of the night?' and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "Always." assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "You'll never persuade me to believe that." The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "Which are?" hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really yourselves in at night?" shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always clang of the bell. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his your bag." beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "This concluded the examination of the witness." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" Watson," he said cordially. "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Ample." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "I was mad--insane." the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "Look there!" said he. nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we I think that I could be of assistance to you." "An accident, I presume?" observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at bird of prey. "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the have established a very serious case against the son of the Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Yes, the wine-cellar." "You horrify me." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present the tragedy. "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. crowd. are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "The gentleman I describe." running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the as he remarks, very much against the son." mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge discontent upon his features. "Yes, from Horsham." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a the best of training." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" see a sister of mine apply for." lost nothing by them." dates and names. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was best detective that ever lived. photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said stepfather?"