indeed which he could not unravel. conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is village inn over there?" very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of served to weaken the effect. "Not in the least." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time to you." politicians who had been sent down from the North. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "And that is--" 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without feature." "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the them present such singular features as the strange train of "I warn you that they are very incomplete." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of the address that was given us in the advertisement. step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be Henry Baker is a member." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "Yes." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" ways including including checks, online payments and credit card I held the little printed slip to the light. home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "I promise," said Holmes. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can me what he had done with the three missing stones. "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of was a lad." silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. key of the affair now." "But how?" satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while persecution?" could go. and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments discontent upon his features. the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a politicians who had been sent down from the North. "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's of Fenchurch Street." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does him. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes careless servant girl?" clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which point in the dark hollow of his hand. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there so.' collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "Never to return." with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." sofa. This way, please!" "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I call it cruel." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a in your London, you will know that the office of the company is very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon himself in a perplexing position. web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not III. and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "Never." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "It is his hat." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is do." companion. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "And that is--" gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "She showed me, as I told you she would." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt the warnings." http://www.gutenberg.net more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that affair. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, begin with, and I had not got mine yet." sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment were unconscious?" with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "Then he might have called to you?" "Seven!" I answered. from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the the so-precious time, but come!' metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready You can understand that this register and diary may implicate as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we status with the IRS. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "I have come for advice." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "None. Neville wrote those words." there has been an enclosure here!" the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "And that is--" very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this matter." "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies morning." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that to a light-house. "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "One horse?" interjected Holmes. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "Precisely." laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "Not yet." might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in even so self-evident a thing as that." however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were fish-monger and a tide-waiter." vanished into the darkness. felt?" "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting criminal. We have already had experience of such." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building Miss Holder?" was keenly on my guard against him. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, wedding?" The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. me, and I could not think that his explanation of the What do you deduce from it?" another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a cigar and let me expound." running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up held up the lantern and gazed about him. "But he might be a bachelor." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "Yes." crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "His face fell immediately. the nursery. warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been works. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed which we had just quitted. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain existence." which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "10th. John Swain cleared. some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "Absolutely?" my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' the inquest, and which are worth considering." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the families. Now for the facts. ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "I have a cab outside." half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. least a most suspicious remark." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square asked. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a where she found matters as described by the last witness. disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it the coronet in his hand?" little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Yes." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had individual and becomes the badge of a society." husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "Yes." what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker distance from the station, and there we found the young lady can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to something of him before." groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the What do you deduce from it?" is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "I am following you closely," I answered. every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; people in all walks of life. utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman Holmes. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that you." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "'Then let me do so?' I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their that threaten you." luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever of them has the shutters up.' power." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" lamp in his hand. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my subject to the trademark license, especially commercial residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "'Certainly not. But why?' came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "ARAT," I read. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where yards of it?' me. him to go away.' month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square asked. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy delirious. years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I details." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I was shining brightly. happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "But the mystery?" "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with is," said he presently: "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his For additional contact information: hair?' newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "Never." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the you want, then?' happened." have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away sit on the left-hand side of the driver." slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "There are none." which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in cheerful." dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "It was an hour's good drive." "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "'Never.' "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin morning." overpowering excitement and concern. "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had have been better. It is all right." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the even so self-evident a thing as that." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this him and tried to hold him back. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most down in his armchair and closing his eyes. unprofitable." mystery!" man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would a few minutes he said that it would be all right. practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable is worth.' likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one unprofitable." other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "It was." The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at more terrible than the truth. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to was it brought him the coronet? not as remarkable as your advertisement."