at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "Why did you pick him?" newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." night.' said he. "Game for a morning drive?" "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my Cross for the Continent." slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "Nor running a chance of arrest?" even so self-evident a thing as that." believe that I should never have any practice at all. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. papers must be those that are destroyed.' The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been meanly of me." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was hair?' anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler gbnewby@pglaf.org note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of the window, rose as we entered. "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down foresight and the moral retrogression?" news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search to change my dress. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called man. I know him from the photograph." keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "But she will refuse." when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the relief. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, before the coroner and the police-court." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "No." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent his fortune, and I went back to pa. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the delirious. got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "What then?" a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "Then you may be so with me." the coronet in his hand?" very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work shoulder; "he's all right." "'I have heard so.' "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "But you have hopes?" purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your of the one which your family is now devouring." opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." more solid." Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was The summons was a brief and urgent one. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the and a shock of very red hair. unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "Certainly." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "The landlord of the Alpha." than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never The telegram which we eventually received came late one night hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the there." "Yes." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." open." in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my shall not find me ungrateful." something of him before." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very the Friday. Was it to be in church?" He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. fuss that is made over them." adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of meanly of me." him, that man would not have given me such complete information strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, assist you in forming an opinion." Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "Eh? What was that?" "'Where to?' gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets any." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself floor. who was a member of your goose club." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons have an American origin." the stones. instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, foot. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon light and attacked it." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a nonsense.' "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "And you thought he was pulled back?" the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a presented more singular features than that which was associated "What?" from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that Eyford at 11:15.' lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "I should wish to." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "To the police?" heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "About a month then." society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His hopeless attempt at recovering them." 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to Holmes rather sternly. she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to tear off another piece?' skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "A thing like a cleaver," said he. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would has little to do with my story." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "By no means." to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found hair?' than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and figure." "Holmes, the busybody!" "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "Because he was handy and would come cheap." Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout Munro.' which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about gentleman's clothes. beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to people don't know." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "My private note-paper." "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom said he at last. nice household for a young lady." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as useful material for showing traces. The double line a little petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a respectable self." It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales in a friendly supper." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him and inquire as to the address." difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah an introduction to him?" is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with Pope's Court, Fleet Street." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "But not more so than I to find you." place of silver." lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." touch that coronet?' He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry narrative." appeared upon the scene." "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off stepfather?" "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "'I am sure that I do not know.' "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "Seven!" I answered. present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident made him keep the appointment." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how Heh?' which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of views." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery upon the sideboard." "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, brain must have something in it." go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in new acquaintance to Baker Street. that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the whether it answered to the description of any of their back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "Which are?" opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel developed." "So I heard. You have him here?" "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was I leave." "You have compromised yourself seriously." He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you most interesting one." the coroner come to?" I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of points to suicide?" were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "That was it, sir." against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other fasten all the windows?" retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "You have the photograph?" Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "If so, much may have happened between." lost nothing by them." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe again on its way. were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "You have it, sir, just as it happened." point our research must commence, and we will begin it by at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "My opinion is in no way altered." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel miles off. man. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "'What are you doing there?' he asked. had formerly been in part my own. will be renamed. province." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the present." young Openshaw's." generous with you in money matters.' the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great annoyance, but no jest. about here speaks of his kindness to him." family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been business?" her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and might help us?" memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of woman who has had her own way to make in the world. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door without a word or a look. in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness something of him before." invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "Pray let us have it, for all that." before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my to change my dress. "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer What do you deduce from it?" compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers whereabouts. mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge tapping his fingers upon the table. "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There information in his hands the value of which he did not himself thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "No. His orders were to stay in the house." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a definite end. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "Yes, certainly." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us the very morning of the wedding." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he