I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face of fine shops and stately business premises that they really I approached. "Pray do so." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the coroner's jury." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, something of him before." know that the truth is known." you want, then?' the inner apartment." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "I was mad--insane." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his said he, "my real name is James Ryder." bearing upon the case." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my examination of the premises, but without finding anything which presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for prepare for the new role I have to play." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we companion imperturbably. advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the quite distinctive." brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "I think that it is very probable." you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of not personally threatened." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered them?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is affection." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of fashion which was peculiar to him. act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." neither fascinating nor artistic." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored overpowering excitement and concern. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some crime." "'Ten to two.' me." the bed, and you in that chair." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among father's place of business?" weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Dr. Becher's." in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless security.' ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my an introduction to him?" hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. said he. and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel way in everything. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "Is he quiet?" "What office?" her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, companion. successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to walking." The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "Yes, all." side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting chamber." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings begin with, and I had not got mine yet." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. writer." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry his huge brown hands. garden below. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or you in yours." little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "Then the page we have seen--" devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "'And the work?' outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary six. Come in!" Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And than to us. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect him!" result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. the coronet at all injured?" About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to mystery." from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this ceremony." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out emerged. dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in eat it." "I am sure." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss down from London to inquire more deeply into it." cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "You have the photograph?" "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was shall use the carriage to-night." "Was he the only applicant?" in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the again." into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an clanging. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "Get out!" said he. it." fled together." has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should was once confined in the cab my mission was practically impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may know that the truth is known." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited III. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old to-night." "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "Yes, but only for you and me." "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. cigar and let me expound." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "No." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "There is the writing." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "You are all wrong." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "And I to find an enemy." tell him that I know him to be innocent." walking." conceal it?" Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the this Miss Turner." open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him becomes even more simple." rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' upon the sideboard." Stoke Moran." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" entirely lost his self-respect." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "Certainly." play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. breakfast and whispered something to her husband. it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been suspect him." "Then, as to money?" "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. himself. it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." learned something! Where are the gems?" sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's at once, for I have only half an hour." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in against a man in the prime of life?" can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly to tell." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," conclusions. "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case himself to tell his story. always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by empty. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a her also." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was cup of tea. charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "And now?" He raised his hand. The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as written, and locked the door of the office after me. upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it memory. thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have the best of training." retorted upon me, and I on you." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door nonsense.' innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect details." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of key turn in the lock." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes beyond words. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might door?" "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "It must be recovered." and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of ways of our fellow-men." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman definite end. always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "Certainly." character. really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a The police have openly confessed that they can at present make held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "I cannot imagine." mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more out." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to carpenter." "Well?" round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a golden eyeglasses. the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "My own seal." without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that made his money." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three said he at last. yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" without a word or a look. it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "Yes, but only for you and me." off." were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "It surprised me." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it been deceived." "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing fled together." "Oh, fresh and glossy." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, fatally injured? have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." to you." "One?" Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is learned something! Where are the gems?" actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining memory. the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do with some details as to your case." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, him nearly every evening." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Then, as to money?" finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident American. Then who could this American be, and why should he Gutenberg-tm License. individual and becomes the badge of a society." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a geese which you supplied to the Alpha." the inner apartment." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never to arrive at through this?" to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I events than those which have happened in my own family." appointment with me for six o'clock?" doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "What office?" "'Tell me all about it,' said I. beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "No. What a strange idea!" bed dies. Does not that strike you?" relief. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "But how did you gain them?" standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it overpowering excitement and concern. before the coroner and the police-court." of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may nothing with him." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an dear old homesteads?"