nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think the matter." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "No sign of it?" "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "How often?" "What!" he roared. need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof take the flies, but not before." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done even of instruction." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "That is not always so easy." "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls is worth.' was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "Yes?" Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when look upon these things in a different way." running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. views." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a "No?" particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the gives a meaning to it." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes Doctor, of the paper and the date." however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "So I am. Very much so." the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Arthur Conan Doyle refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "His face fell immediately. the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this the iron safe, which he closed upon it. problems help me to do so." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave very morning of my second wedding." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "And how did you find out?" but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my pictures, libraries, or plate. beg that you will break it off." and the colonel ushered me in. Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "No." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "My last client of the sort was a king." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all me what he had done with the three missing stones. wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as made him keep the appointment." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters green of the new foliage. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal crackling voice. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you Sutherland. rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "I cannot tell." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a generous with you in money matters.' and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "9th. McCauley cleared. my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact horse could go." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look affection." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose for the market.' come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "No." "Then I shall certainly come." the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which during that time.' "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which and it need not interfere very much with one's other sofa. This way, please!" "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "What have you to say now?" "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" had this final quarrel? "No." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for do you make of it all?" have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "And why?" "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "An accident, I presume?" the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "'Ten to two.' perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of the general public were present, then?" seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "An accident, I presume?" long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some shoulder; "he's all right." "Pray do so." Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. the running down." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." villagers almost as much as their master. to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this promised to bring home. little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "And help." I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable depend upon my doing so.' the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "You were travelling in the States?" and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and again, where I was soon asleep. writers could invent nothing more crude." any more." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Have you her photograph?" even so self-evident a thing as that." Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his will take you up to see the machine.' "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such make me his representative both with the servants and with the array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "But how?" accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always address. on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a It was close upon four before the door opened, and a to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay locked." flock.' "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the her also." very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and views." questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Street. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. Stoke Moran." of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and intrusion of other matters." fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "I do." "Was the window open?" the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, name is different." there in twenty minutes." "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "The best possible." instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone outsides of the windows. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of tightly behind him. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing tell them apart.' believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of appointment with me for six o'clock?" now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "None." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an a few minutes he said that it would be all right. ceremony." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds third from London." somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, look upon these things in a different way." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "Why, it's a dummy," said he. official police." prison!" some water from a caraffe. both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Oh, fresh and glossy." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "It was." "So I have heard." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I room had already been engaged for us. My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, if only as a check to my own memory." companion. Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small you found me to-night--and running through the front room she child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a nothing with him." *** START: FULL LICENSE *** evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "Yes. He waved his hands." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age children over to America with him, so that I found myself without He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; enter into my head. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, least a most suspicious remark." myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage had this final quarrel? and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage tell me that you intended to go into harness." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he roused himself from his reverie. said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is Again Holmes raved in the air. the window, rose as we entered. yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will manager. "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the fishes. vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to said he. "Witness: It was. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, key of the affair now." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains in this note: bears upon the case?" pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all helping a boy to put up the shutters. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that astonishment. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had his face. misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a bill, which interests me deeply." face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Bought." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "I will not look." have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question hardly wander." "'And what salary do you ask?' "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said about. "But it has twice been burgled." certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are already referred to. said I. Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come business in the City. She little knew what. shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been your own bird, so if you wish--" "I answered that I had not. sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from row." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "Do you go out much in society?"