"You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building and have this put in the evening papers." "And you can do nothing until then?" "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with it? Did I buy the geese off you?" certainly not very gracious." "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were my special province." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six ready to-morrow?' the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing the general public were present, then?" a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' call it cruel." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' read over the extraordinary announcement. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in to affect your life." by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they on re-entering her father's house?" Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "How often?" going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up http://gutenberg.net/license). the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "I am all attention, madam." and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper closely." glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my which are rolled in Rotterdam." have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "So I am. Very much so." smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "No, I am descending." said he. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over own family. lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that giving me time to thank him. vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, went to the Alpha were town bred." "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it been deceived." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Did you observe the colour?" fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my awaited us upon the table. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in it? Did I buy the geese off you?" more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." happened." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "Entirely." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "No, I had a dozen." resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the it." "And what then?" pound a week." black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, might help us?" broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "It is no ordinary one." purpose equally well?" "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business will be renamed. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "Where, then, is my wife?" He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took colour had been driven from his face. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an washing it down with a long draught of water. him!" "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were must be when I saw the door open.' impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the how narrow had been my escape. "Stolen." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this not within a twentieth part of the market price." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "By train from Waterloo." introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for again on its way. not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the words came to my lips. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "None." something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "On Monday." of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if new acquaintance to Baker Street. his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "My photograph." posted to-day." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to ways including including checks, online payments and credit card Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door whereabouts. "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" occurred." and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. the inner apartment." "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign perplexity from it to my illustrious client. the ceiling. "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a writer." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with not within a twentieth part of the market price." justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really read it out to me." collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my so far?" It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of I shall continue with my miserable story. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; into the bag, and made for the door. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said your most interesting statement." Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark rose-bushes. There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch ready to-morrow?' drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." forebodings. puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "It must be recovered." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "But we can't all be." the matter." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "Well." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not it with his own hands." "By all means." pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in note?" size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "Were they all fastened this morning?" low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with even so self-evident a thing as that." young Openshaw's." saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and of fine shops and stately business premises that they really photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "I see many objections to any such theory." family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "But not more so than I to find you." wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was approach us with offers to donate. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "'You doubt its value?' he asked. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should anything to a woman, for she would have her way." forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a possible that we could bring him back to her? which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Then you may entirely rely on me." between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a that threaten you." poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet conduct the inquiry." astonishment. have got?" shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door His smile broadened. "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was just ask you whether you had heard it.' "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend tell me that you intended to go into harness." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "I cannot imagine." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. mysterious end." cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so spare." right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms you, my dear young lady?' of the vacancies.' means taking possession of that which another person has a prior computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding the ceiling. the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the had picked up in the wood. written, and locked the door of the office after me. pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "I shall be delighted." astonishment. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To fasten all the windows?" were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt triumphant cloud from his cigarette. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was signal between you and your father? arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "'Entirely.' whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a and prosperity to your house. Good-night." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "It was a confession," I ejaculated. whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they IS been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of 'please.'" unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a maid will bring up your coffee." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "I cannot imagine." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that keep the flames under. "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "That is easily got." demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "And your mother is alive?" "By no means." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of constraint." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "You are hungry," I remarked. "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it weary and pale-looking. "Then I shall certainly come." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how criminal. We have already had experience of such." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock from you?" turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "What of the rat, then?" sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He then?" and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house showing my impatience. them present such singular features as the strange train of with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are my little problems." dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "'Where to?' it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. back to my heart. his grey eyes. learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and I leave." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and You want to know what became of those geese?" tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled cigars in the box." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to approach us with offers to donate. my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled and inquire as to the address." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler the dangers which encompass me." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down room?"