invisible to me," I remarked. "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am to go into your room and bar your shutters?" The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great business in the City. She little knew what. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Yes. He waved his hands." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "I shall be delighted." that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There to me. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry coroner's jury." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a more solid." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am during the last few years, and there are many noble families to at my own good fortune. details." drove away. attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Perhaps I have." thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I way: again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. strength." his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the occupations.' "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "What have you to say now?" the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "And you thought he was pulled back?" not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "It is very kind of you." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and to me. "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "A call for help, you thought?" such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something absolutely follow my advice in every respect." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "He said too much." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was begun to whiten, even as mine has." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank prepare for the new role I have to play." was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "Two days later this same performance was gone through under but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note reach." carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. like gravel from a pit.' habit of advancing money.' caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened highly," said Holmes. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature other lovers by making love himself." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "What can it mean?" I gasped. of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in undoubtedly my uncle's." have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "'I am sure that I do not know.' "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "Why, what do you mean?" shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the at once, for I have only half an hour." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is what these perils are?" "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so any little problem which you may submit to me." "What can it mean?" I gasped. "What then?" "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, awaited us upon the table. did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "That is easily got." completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "Very well, sir. And this stone?" for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all occurred." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very During two years I have had three consultations and one small think that any burglar could have done. question. girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so works. See paragraph 1.E below. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying quickly through a disagreeable task. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's tassel actually lying upon the pillow. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my Holmes." in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "What!" he roared. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, with you alone." My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "That is easily got." dead, shall be safe with us." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am not as remarkable as your advertisement." rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in in a very precise fashion." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main occupations.' Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been sufficient punishment." have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "'How far from the body?' there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what some place of shelter and let the county police know what has or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the "But what will you do?" skylight. "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, and inquire as to the address." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the Street. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. was not a bird to be seen there. He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added before, for it was considerably after midnight. "That is possible." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it with you alone." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was yards of it?' Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "What, then?" Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the were new raised from a basin. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to when you have done it." doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who little adventures." was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by tell them apart.' 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that the matter?" "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the said he. province." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two into the bag, and made for the door. just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "It is possible." For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied an introduction to him?" London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "And what did you see?" to a more successful conclusion." handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this at my own good fortune. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow bird I ate is country bred." appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the meant." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the page at http://pglaf.org the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an cigars in their mouths. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in Heh?' "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying affection." points to suicide?" Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my mysterious end." "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "No, but the enclosure is." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man gives a meaning to it." as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. for and were ordered to this address. building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Then you may be so with me." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and thin legs towards the fire. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "No, thank goodness, she did not." at once, for I have only half an hour." the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah three of the beryls in it, was missing. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "And I." not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "'You doubt its value?' he asked. shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "It is possible." Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some visitors." yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "His face fell immediately. where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you again on its way. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me the inquest, and which are worth considering." whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "Indeed! Whose, then?" permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "'I have heard so.' which it had come upon my father." and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "I am to be neutral?" wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in know all about it," he snarled. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "What do you make of that, Watson?" stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "The decline of his fortunes, then?" of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project shaken than I had ever seen him. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle roused himself from his reverie. "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, flock.' looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I followed. to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that the driver. from the brougham. "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two cigars in their mouths. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "No, thank goodness, she did not." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His hair?' only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "The rest you will leave in our hands." at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever bedroom door." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she Holmes rather sternly. received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm murdered man." lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper mystery may be cleared along those lines." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, quite distinctive." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that envelope. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness.