"You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, me where it went to?" "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "Only as much as we can deduce." "I shall be delighted." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch Holmes' thin, eager face. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson him to be an active member of the medical profession." not, dad?" she asked. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained was shining brightly. "I am about to be married." preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will brought there to personate someone, and the real person is they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in himself in a perplexing position. all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; one else, I think." maiden herself was most instructive." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." system of imprisonment?" Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then there in twenty minutes." attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked Pool. outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head American. Then who could this American be, and why should he forehead. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the ran thus: settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "I think that I had better go, Holmes." this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said to talk it over. again before evening." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, child?' set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a enough to aid us in our search." remarked. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six questionable one." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a posted to-day." "And when will you call?" "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but fire. You quite follow me?" "Why, what do you mean?" points to suicide?" office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "'I shall certainly be there.' well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "Well, but China?" I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in their singular warning or token before them when starting upon every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be was used.' Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been his fortune, and I went back to pa. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "And now?" He raised his hand. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. fashion which was peculiar to him. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the and it need not interfere very much with one's other "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I views." man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "Dr. Becher's." wall." mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill at my own good fortune. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so had formerly been in part my own. order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "He said that you could solve anything." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and my room." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of asked with his eyes open. wall." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You Watson," he said cordially. papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "Dark enough and sinister enough." "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to written. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too he died? scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was strength." when your master had gone out." sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." 11:15.' had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "Then, how do you know?" said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "Why did you beat the pavement?" this Miss Turner." fact, we may call it conclusive." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "Witness: It was. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "I cannot think." southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend second." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. carpenter." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "I was sure that I might rely on you." fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the fashion which was peculiar to him. here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "And you thought he was pulled back?" seen the man in the road." maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is of the one which your family is now devouring." outsides of the windows. is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project written, and locked the door of the office after me. "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at tear off another piece?' "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving thin legs towards the fire. "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of ready to-morrow?' yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "The landlord of the Alpha." the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall in a friendly supper." "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" less than 26s. 4d. "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "Certainly." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors was feeling which was the fattest.' "I answered that I had not. "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the I was concerned in it." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just page at http://pglaf.org "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as once more to my work. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms strong and stiff." "The Cedars?" of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very forebodings. this poor creature." the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six friend's singular character. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but bled considerably." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. for the market.' from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and derbies." sufficient punishment." could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "And you don't know his address?" walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "Proceed, then." butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to come either from the window or the door. My attention was had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that green of the new foliage. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I hour." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. desk. from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "Where, then?" address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have your equipment. drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All and a shock of very red hair. observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at conceal it?" Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are as noiselessly as she had come. pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon Literary Archive Foundation neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "'Yes.' dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had digesting their breakfasts at home." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "'Ample.' America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "What then?" sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is DAMAGE. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, kindly on the shoulder. in this note: him." visitors." is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "What then?" and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not how narrow had been my escape. going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the at a side door. "And Miss Sutherland?" solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had is," said he presently: huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and room. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. little trying to do so much typewriting?" "It was an hour's good drive." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to hand, madam?" effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "Has he come with you to-night?" streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "'There is a drive, then?' bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the sparkled upon his finger. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. and looked back. pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for skylight. photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in society." "I was mad--insane." "I am still in the dark." Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we showing my impatience. "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I this remarkable episode. Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without of receipt of the work. Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see sound at heart." habit of advancing money.' the salesman. deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the exactly what you advise." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "I promise," said Holmes. disappearance of these gems?" massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "The vanishing of the lady." upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, disappearance of the bride.'" basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. on re-entering her father's house?" his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" back alive. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was awkward doing business with an alias." reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Holmes, the busybody!" "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and head. So long, then!" felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "Where, then?" "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." remarked. "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to remarked. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "Which are?" that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be